The holders of hereditary titles are so few, th their existence cannot be said to impair the asses tion that the holders of 'official rank form ti only aristocracy in China. Unlike the aristocrat of other lands, this charmed circle is, accordin to law, only to be entered by winning distinctic at the examinations ; and as these are open I every man in the empire, of whatever age and whatever station in life, except the very outcast the highest prizes are as freely accessible to tl, peasant or shopman, as to'the sons of the loftiem dignitaries. China may thus be said to be democratic empire, tempered by an aristocrat of talent.—Dr. W. A. P. Martin, The Chines their Education and Letters; hue, Chinese Empire, I i. pp. 19, 95.
HANNANfANTU'S PILLAR. About 50 feet west of the high road from Kurnool to Gooty, 50f miles from Kurnool town, stands this natural pillar of gneiss rock. There is scarcely such another in the world. Amongst a few smaller pillars of a similar kind, it towers 25 feet high, averaging 6 feet square. Tliis average width is exceeded in the middle, and tapers off towards both ends; so that the top is 4 or fi feet square, and the base about 3 feet square. It is all solid, except that the
tipper 4 or 5 feet is separated from the rest of the pillar by a fine horizontal crack. The most strik ing part of it is, that it does not stfind on its base fully, nor even upon half of it. A string 10 feet long will encircle the whole of the bearing points of the base, which all lie within a space about 3 , feet long and 2 feet wide, in the form of a trun cated right-angled triangle. This is a small base I for a pillar weighing as much as a couple of loco motive engines with their tenders complete. Yet even on this small base, if, as appears likely, the centre'of gravity falls about the centre of the base, it will require a wind•pressure of 80 lbs. on the square foot to overturn the pillar. Years ago, some Hindu enthusiast painted a figure of the monkey god on this pillar. Recently some icono clast has been removing the figure, by flaking off the stone in a very destructive way.—Traveller.