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 Il8 HISTORY OF THE PARLIAMENT. Dr. F. A. Noble, the first paper was one of several essays which had come to the Parliament as the result of offers adver- tised by Dr. Barrows in the Chinese newspapers, proposing a premium in gold for the best essays on Confucianism and Taoism. This fact, announced by the reader, added to the general interest with which this paper was received. Forty-two Chinese scholars had entered into the competition. Confucianism : a Prize Essay ; by Kung Hsien Ho of Shanghai, China. Translated by the Rev. Timothy Richard, of the English Baptist Mission in China. Read by Mr. Will- iam Pipe. The Comparative Study of the World's Religions ; by MON- siGNOR C. d'Harlez, Profcssor in the University of Louvain, Belgium. Read by the Rev. D. J. Riordan. The I??tportance of a Serious Study of all Religions ; by Mrs. Eliza R. Sunderland, Ph.D., of Ann Arbor, Mich. Just before the close of the afternoon session, the Chair- man invited some remarks from the Hindu monk Swami VivEKANANDA, of Bombay, who responded with a little fable intended to illustrate the variance among men of different races and religions. The frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. Of course the evolutionists were not there then to tell us whether the frog lost its eyes or not ; but, for our story's sake, we must take it for granted that it had its eyes, and that it every day cleansed the water of all the worms and bacilli that lived in it, with an energy that would give credit to our modern bacteri- ologists. In this way it went on and became a little sleek and fat — perhaps as much so as myself. "Well, one day another frog, that lived in the sea, came and fell into the well. " Whence are you from ? " " I'm from the sea." "The sea ? how big is that ? Is it as big as my well ?" and he took a leap from one side of the well to the other. " My friend," says the frog of the sea, " how do you compare the sea with your little well ? " Then the frog took another leap, and asked : " Is your sea so big ? " " What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea with your well ! " "Well, then," said the frog of the well, "nothing can be bigger than