'which it abounds, may, as Mr. Selden obferves, give offence to ⚫ fome grammatical and fqueamish ftomachs, who would rather choose 'to live in ignorance of things moft ⚫ useful and important, than to have their delicate ears wounded by the • use of a word unknown to Cicero, Salluft, or the other writers of the •Auguftan age.'

"Cic. Op. omnia, Gronovii. Acad. Queft. L. 1.

2.1. *** Dabitis enim profectò, ut in rebus inufitatis, quod Græci ipfi faciunt, a quibus hæc jamdiu tractantur, utamur verbis interdum inauditis.

“25. Nos verò, inquit Atticus. Quin etiam Græcis licebit utare, cum voles, fi te Latina forte deficient. Bene fanè facis: fed enitar ut La tinè loquar, nifi in hujus modi verbis, ut philofophiam, aut rhetori

cam, aut phyficam, aut dialecticam appellem, quibis, ut aliis multis, confuetudo jam utitur pro Latinis. Qualitates igitur appellavi, quas Torras Græci vocant: quod ipfum apud Græcos non eft vulgi verbum, fed philofophorum, atque id in multis. Dialecticorum vero verba nulla funt publica; fuis utuntur. Et id quidem commune omnium ferè eft artium. Aut enim nova funt rerum novarum facienda nomina, aut ex aliis transferenda, quod fi Græci faciunt, qui in iis rebus tot jam fæcula verfantur, quanto id magis nobis concedendum eft, qui ba nunc primum tractare conamur?

“26. Tu verò, inquam, Varro, bene etiam meriturus mihi videris, de tuis civibus, fi eos non modo copia rerum auxeris ut effecifli, fed etiam verborum. Audebimus ergo, inquit, novis verbis uti, te auctore. **"

HE founds of feveral letters

"THE

in most alphabets, fuch as B, D, R, and X, are utterly unknown in the Chinese tongue. The organs of speech in a native of China are not in the habit of pronouncing them. In indeavouring to utter one of these, another to which the fame organ has been habituated is generally founded: inftead of the letter R, the liquid L is ufually pronounced by a Chinese; who thus occafionally falls into ridiculous miftakes. A Chinese dealer in rice, for example, is fometimes heard to offer for fale what few perfons would be difpofed to purchase.

"The nice diftinctions between the tones and accents of words nearly refembling each other in found, but varying much in fenfe, require, no doubt, a nicety of ear to diftinguith, and of vocal powers to render, them exactly. To fucceed in making thofe diftinctions perfectly, a ftranger fhould begin to learn them at an early age, while his organs are flexible and acute. A material aid, however, towards taking each word in its proper fenfe is afforded often by the general context of the fentence in which they are used. An English reader, for example, will fcarcely recollect, when in con

verfation,

verfation, he had any difficulty in determining whether the idea of fun (which thines), or that of fon (obeying his father), was meant to be conveyed, though the words are not to be diftinguifhed in the pronunciation. Synonymous words are alfo very frequently introduced in Chinefe dialogue, as has been before obferved, to prevent any doubt about the intended fenfe. If, however, in an intricate difcuffion, any uncertainty thould ftill remain as to the meaning of a particular expreffion, recourfe is had to the ultimate criterion of tracing with the finger in the air, or otherwife, the form of the character, and thus afcertaining at once which was meant to be expreffed.

"The learner of Chinese is, befides, not puzzled with many minute rules of grammar, conjugation, or declenfion. There is no neceffity of diftinguithing fubftantives, adjectives, or verbs: nor any accordance of gender, number, and cafe, in a Chinese fentence. That language furnishes, indeed, a practical proof, that the laborious ftructure, and intricate machinery of the Greek and Arabic tongues, are by no means neceffary either for a complete communication on all the bufinefs of life, or even to the grace of elocution, or to the harmony of verfe. The beginning or end of words is not altered, as it is in the Greek verb alone, in above one thousand inftances, by the times of performing the action meant to be expreffed, or the cafes in which the things mentioned are intended to be placed. A very few particles denote the past, the prefent, and the future; nor are thofe auxiliaries employed when the intended time may be otherwife inferred with certainty. A Chinese who means to declare his intention of departing to-morrow,

never fays that he will depart to morrow; because the expreflion of the morrow is fufficient to afcertain that his departure must be future. The plural number is remarked by the addition of a word, without which the fingular always is applied. Neither the memory, nor the organs of fpeech are burthened with the pronunciation of more founds to exprefs ideas, than are abfolutely neceflary to mark their difference. The language is entirely monofyllabic. A fingle fyllable always expreffes a complete idea. Each syllable may be founded by an Euroropean confonant preceding vowel, fometimes followed by a liquid. Such an order of words, prevents the harfhnefs of fucceeding confonants founding ill together; and renders the language as foft and harmonious as the Italian is felt to be, from the rarity of confonants, and the frequency of its vowel terminations.

"The first founds emitted probably by man, were exclamations confifting of fingle founds, or monofyllables. The names, or founds, by which men may be first supposed to have diftinguiflied other animals, when occafion offered to designate them in their abfence, were attempts at an imitation of the founds peculiar to thofe beings; and ftill, in Chinese, the name, for example, of a cat, is a pretty near refemblance of its ufual cry. It occurred as naturally to endeavour, in fpeaking, to imitate the voice, if practicable, as it was in writing, to ketch a rude figure of the object of defcription. It is obfervable, that the radical words of moft languages, feparated from the fervile letters, which mark their inflections, ac cording to their conjugations or declenfions, are monofyllabic. A part of each radical word is retained in H2

com.

compofition to denote the meaning and etymology of the compound, which thus becomes polyfyllabic; but the Chinese grammarians, aware of the inconvenience refulting from the length and complication of founds, confined all their words, however fignificant of combined ideas, to fingle founds; and retained only in writing, fome part, at leaft, of the form of each character denoting a simple idea, in the compound characters conveying complex ideas.

"There is in the Chinese a certain order, or fettled fyntax in the fucceffion of words in the fame fentences; a fucceffion fixed by cuftom, differently in different languages; but founded on no rule or natural order of ideas, as has been fometimes fuppofed; for though a sentence confifts of feveral ideas, to be rendered by feveral words, thefe ideas, all exift and are connected together in the fame inftant: forming a picture, or image, every part of which is conceived at once. The formation of Chinese fentences is often the fimpleft and moft artless poffible, and fuch as may naturally have occurred at the origin of fociety. To interrogate, for example, is often, at leaft, to require the folution of a queftion, whether the fubject of doubt be in a particular way, or the contrary; and accordingly, a Chinefe inquiring about his friend's health, will fometimes fay, bou, poo bou? The literal meaning of which is, well, not well? A fimple character, repeated, ftands, fometimes for more than one of the objects, which, fingly, it denotes; and fometimes for a collective quantity of the fame thing. The character of moo, fingly, is a tree; repeated, is a thicket; and tripled, is a fo

reft.

"In Chinese, there are fearcely fifteen hundred diftinct founds. In

the written language, there are at leaft eighty thousand characters, or different forms of letters; which number, divided by the firft, gives nearly fifty fenfes, or characters, upon an average, to every found expreffed; a difproportion, however, that gives more the appearance, than the reality, of equivocation and uncertainty to the oral language of the Chinese. Johnson's English Dictionary affords inftances of words taken in upwards of one hundred different fenfes, without any doubt being thereby felt in English converfation; where, indeed, if there were, no recourfe can be had for afcertaining its precife fenfe, as in the Chinese, to the form of the written character peculiar to each fenfe in which the word is received.

"The number of words in any language, or at least of fenfes in which each word is understood, muft depend chiefly on the state of civilization to which the people that ufe it are arrived; and in fome degree alfo, on the population of the country, and on the arts flourishing among them. It is not furpifing, therefore, that the Chinese dictionary fhould contain, at least eighty thousand characters. Perhaps if every fenfe in which an English term is fometimes received, were confidered as a diftinct word, and the vast variety of thofe employed in the different arts and occupations of life were taken into the account, the number would not be much fewer than that of the Chineic.

"The characters of the Chines language were originally traced, in most inftances, with a view to exprefs either real images, or the allegorical figns of ideas: a circle, for example, for the fun, and a crefcent for the moon. A man was reprefented by an erect figure, with lines to mark the extremities. It was evident that the difficulty and tediouf

nefs

nefs of imitation will have occafioned foon a change to traits more fimple, and more quickly traced. Of the entire figure of a man, little more than the lower extremities only continue to be drawn, by two lines forming an angle with each other. A faint refemblance, in fome few inftances, ftill remains of the original forms in the prefent hieroglyphic characters; and the gradation of their changes is traced in feveral Chinese books. Not above half a dozen of the prefent characters confift each of a fingle line; but most of them confift of many, and a few of fo many as feventy different ftrokes. The form of thofe characters has not been fo flux as the found of words, as appears in the inftance of almost all the contries bordering on the Chinese fea, or Eaftem Afia, where the Chinese written, but not the oral language, is understood; in like manner as one form of Arabic figures to denote numbers, and one fet of notes for mufic, are uniform and intelligible throughout Europe, notwithftanding the variety of its languages.

"A certain order or connection is to be perceived in the arrangement of the written characters of the Chinese; as if it had been formed originally upon a fyftem to take place at once, and not grown up, as other languages, by flow and diftant intervals. Upwards of two hundred characters, generally confifting each of a few lines or ftrokes, are made to mark the principal objects of nature, fomewhat in the manner of bishop Wilkin's divifions, in his ingenious book on the fubject of univerfal language, or real character. These may be confidered as the genera, or roots of language, in which every other word, or fpecies, in a fyftematic fenfe, is referred to its proper genus. The heart is a ge

nus, of which the representation of a curve line approaches fomewhat to the form of the object; and the fpecies referable to it include all the fentiments, paffions, and affections, that agitate the human breast. Each fpecies is accompanied by, fome mark denoting the genus, or heart. Under the genus 'hand,' are arranged most trades and manual ex-. ercifes. Under the genus 'word,' every fort of fpeech, ftudy, writing, understanding, and debate. A horizontal line marks a unit; croffed by another line, it stands for ten, as it does in every nation which repeats the units after that number. The five elements of which the Chinese fuppofe all bodies in nature to be compounded, form fo many genera, each of which comprehends a great number of fpecies under it. As in every compound character, or fpecies, the abridged mark of the genus is difcernib e by a ftudent of that language, in a little time, he is enabled to confult the Chinefe dictionary, in which the compound characters, or fpecies, are arranged under their proper genera. The characters of thefe genera are placed at the beginning of the dictionary, in an order, which, like that of the alphabet, is invariable, and foon becomes familiar to the learner. The fpecies under each genus follow each other, according to the number of ftrokes of which each con fifts, independently of the one, few, which ferve to point out ne genus. The ipecies wanted is chus foon found out. Its meaning and pronunciation are given through other words in common ufe, the first of which denotes its fignification, and the other, its found. When no one common word is found to render exactly the fame found, it is communicated by two words, with marks, to inform the inquirer that the confonant of the first word, and the H 3

vowel

vowel of the fecond, joined together, form the precise found wanted.

"The compofition of many of the Chinese characters often difplays, confiderable ingenuity; and ferves alfo to give an infight into the opinions and manners of the people. The character expreffive of happiness, includes abridged marks of land, the fource of their phyfical, and of children, that of their moral enjoyments. This character, embellished in a variety of ways, is hung up almost in every houfe. Sometimes written by the hand of the emperor, it is fent by him as a compliment, which is very highly prized; and fuch as he was pleafed to fend to the embalador.

Upon the formation, changes, and allutions of compound characters, the Chinese have published many thoufand volumes of philological learning. No where does criticifn more abound, or is more ftrict. The introduction, or alteration of a character is a ferious undertaking; and feldom fails to meet with oppofition. The moft ancient writings of the Chinese are ftill claffical amongst them. The language feems in no inftance to have been derived from, or mixed with, any other. The written, feems to have followed the oral, language Coon after the men who spoke it Were formed into a regular fociety. Tugh it is likely that all hieroglyphical languages were originally founded on the principles of imitation, yet in the gradual progrefs towards arbitrary forms and founds, it is probable that every fociety deviated from the originals, in a different manner from the others; and thus for every independent fociety, there arofe a feparate hieroglyphic language. As foon as a communication took place between any two

of them, each would hear names and founds not common to both. Each reciprocally would mark down fuch names, in the founds of its own characters, bearing, as hieroglyphics, a different fenfe. In that inftance, confequently, thofe characters ceafe to be hieroglyphics, and were merely marks of found. If the foreign founds could not be expreffed but by the ufe of a part of two hieroglyphics, in the manner mentioned to be used fometimes in Chinese dictionaries, the two marks joined together, become in fact a fyllable. If a frequent intercourse thould take place between communities, fpeaking different languages, the neceffity of ufing hieroglyphics merely as marks of found, would frequently recur. The practice would lead imperceptibly to the difcovery that, with a few hieroglyphics, every found of the foreign language might be expreffed; and the hieroglyphics, which anfwered beft this purpose, either as to exactnefs of found, or fimplicity of form, would be felected for this particular ufe; and, ferving as fo many letters, would form, in fact, together what is called an alphabet. This natural progreffion has actually taken place in Canton, where, on account of the vaft concourfe of perfons, ufing the English language, who refort to it, a vocabulary has been published of English words in Chinese characters, expreffive merely of found, for the ufe of the native merchants concerned in foreign trade; and who, by fuch means, learn the founds of English words. To each character is annexed a mark, to denote that it is not intended to convey the idea, but merely the foreign found attached to it. habit of applying the found, inftead of the meaning of hieroglyphics, to foreign words, led to the applica

The