Note 11 — Chapter V · HOLY PERSONS.

After some hesitation, I have determined to adhere to the Latinized form of the name of the prophet of China, as more familiar to English ears. As a general rule, I consider the movement in literature which is restoring proper names to their original spellings,—giving us Herakles for Hercules, and Oidipous for Œdipus,—as deserving of all support. But where the common form, in addition to being the more familiar, may be considered as English proper and not Latin used in English (as in such names as Homer, Aristotle, Jesus Christ), I conceive it to be more convenient to retain the accustomed designation, even though it may be regretted that it has come into general use. Hence, I think, we may retain Confucius, who would scarcely be recognized by English readers under his full name, Khung-fu-tsze, or under his more usual abridged name, Khung-tsze, or under the name elsewhere given him, Chung-ne. No similar justification appears to me to exist for the Greek form Zoroaster, as compared with Zarathustra, which last form is as easy to pronounce as the other, and not very dissimilar from it in sound.

My authorities for the life of Confucius have been Dr. Legge's Chinese Classics, vol. i. Proleg. p. 54-113, and the Lun Yu and Chung Yung, translated in the same volume.