tion of them likewife as founds, to aflift the memory in the pronunciation of other hieroglyphics in the fame language, but not in common ufe; and the repeated application of them for thofe purposes may be at length fuppofed to have effaced their original use. Thus the paffage from hieroglyphic to alphabetic writing may naturally be traced, without the neceffity of having re'courfe to divine inftruction, as 'fome learned men have conjectured, on the ground that the art of writing by an alphabet is too re'fined and artificial for untutored ' reafon.' It is, indeed, equally natural to fuppofe that no fuch art could have preceded the establishment of hieroglyphic, as that a mixture of other nations fuperinduced the invention of alphabetic, language. The exclufive existence of the former ftill in China is a proof and an inftafice, that the number of foreigners who had ever found their way among them, as the Tartars, for example, however warlike and victorious, bore fo very fmall a proportion to the vanquished, that it introduced no more a change in their language, than in their ufages and manners. "The Chinese printed character is the fame as is ufed in most manufcripts, and is chiefly formed of ftraight lines in angular pofitions, as moft letters are in Eaftern tongues; efpecially in Shanfcrit, the characters of which, in fome inftances, admit of additions to their original form, producing a modification of the fenfe. A running hand is ufed by the Chinese only on trivial occafions, or for private notes, or for the eafe and expedition of the writer; and differs from the other as much as an European manufcript does from print. There are books with alternate columns of both kinds of writing, for their mutual explanation to a learner. "The principal difficulty in the frad, of Chinese writings, arifes from the general exclufion of the auxiliary particles of colloquial language, that fixed the relation be- . ween indeclinable words, fuch as are all thofe of the Chinese language.The judgment must be conftantly exercifed by the ftudent, to fupply the abfence of fuch affiftance.That judgment must be guided by attention to the manners, customs, laws, and opinions of the Chinese, and to the events and local circumftances of the country, to which the allufions of language perpetually refer. If it, in general, be true that a language is difficult to be understood in proportion to the distance of the country where it is spoken, and that of him who endeavours to acquire it; because in that proportion the allufions to which language has continually recourse are lefs known to the learner; fome idea may be conceived of the obftacles which an European may expect to meet in reading Chinefe, not only from the remoteness of fituation, but from the difference between him and the native of China in all other refpects. The Chinese characters are, in fact, sketches or a bridged figures, and a fentence is often a ftring of metaphors. The different relations of life are not marked by arbierary founds, fimply conveying the idea of fuch connection; but the qualities naturally expected to arife out of fuch relations become frequently the name by which they are refpectively known. Kindred, for example, of every degree, is thus diftinguished, with a minutenefs unknown in other languages. That of China has diftinct characters for every modification, known by them, of ob jects in the phyfical and intellectual H4 world. world. Abstract terms are no otherwife expreffed by the Chinese, than by applying to each the name of the most prominent objects to which it might be applied, which is likewife, indeed, generally the cafe of other languages. Among the Latins the abstract idea of virtue, for example, was expreffed under the name of valour, or ftrength (virtus), being the quality moft efteemed amongst them, as filial piety is confidered to be in China. The words of an alphabetic language being formed of different combinations of letters, or elemental parts, each with a diftin&t found and name, whoever knows and combines these together, may read the words without the leaft knowledge of their meaning; not fo hieroglyphic language, in which each character has, indeed, a found annexed to it, but which bears no certain relation to the unnamed lines or ftrokes, of which it is com pofed. Such character is ftudied and beft learned by becoming acquainted with the idea attached to it; and a dictionary of hieroglyphics is lefs a vocabulary of the terms of one language with the correfpondent terms in another, than an encyclopedia, containing explanations of the ideas themfelves, reprefented by fuch hieroglyphics. In fuch fenfe only can the acquifition of Chinese words be juftly faid to engross moft of the time of men of learning amongst them. The knowledge of the fciences of the Chinese, however imperfect, and of their most extenfive literature, is certainly fufficient to occupy the life of man. Enough, however, of the language is imperceptibly acquired by every native, and may, with diligence, be acquired by foreigners, for the ordinary concerns of life; and further improvements muft depend on capacity and opportunity." On the COALITION attempted by fome BRITISH ARTISTS, between POETRY and PAINTING. [From the PHILANTHROPE: after the Manner of a Periodical Paper.] hibited in the Shakespeare gallery, realized by the pencil; and difplayed, as it were, not only to mental, but actual vifion. "But the obfervation is no lefs juft in criticism than in morals, that where we enjoy a great deal of pleasure, we alfo encounter a good deal of danger. Pleafing as on many occafions may be the effects of this combination between two of the moft elegant arts, it ought not to be attempted in any inftance, without cautious deliberation and acute difcernment. In particular, much discernment and good tafte are required for afcertaining what paffages in a poem are proper fubjects for painting. Here the admirers of painting and the partifans of its alliance with poetry may be inclined to ask, are not all fine paffages in a poem fit to be delineated by the painter; are not the arts congenial, and are they not produced by fimilar energies? They are admitted to be congenial; but some diftinctions must be attended to. Let it be particularly attended to and remembered, that what is highly poetical is not always picturefque. Many fine thoughts of the poet, and many objects prefented by him to the mind, cannot by all the creative power of lines, colours, and fhades be rendered vifible. Can any grief be more natural than that of Cordelia when he is informed how cruelly her fifters have treated their father? But who can pourtray the feelings that fhrink from notice, as the fenfitive plant from the touch; that veil themselves with referve; that fly even from confolation, and hide themselves in the fecret mazes and myfterious fanctuaries of the heart? Kent. Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonftration of grief? Gent. I fay fhe took 'em, read 'em in my prefence; And now and then an ample tear trill'd down Her delicate cheek: it seem'd fhe was a queen Over her paffion, which, moft rebel like, Sought to be king over her. Kent. O, then it moved her. and forrow ftrove Which fhould exprefs her goodlieft: You have feen Sun-fhine and rain at once. Those happieft fimiles That What played on her ripe lip feem'd not to know quefts were in her eyes, which parted thence, As pearls from diamonds dropt.— In brief, Sorrow would be a rarity most belov'd, If all could fo become it. Kent. Made the no verbal queftion? Gent. Once or twice, She heav'd the name of father, Pantingly forth, as if it preft her heart, Cry'd, Sifters! Sifters! What! i' th' ftorm of night Let pity ne'er believe it! then the fhook "In like manner, the fublime and awful vifion in the book of Job, the indiftinct form of the fpirit, the portentous filence, and the folemn voice, thake and appal the foul;, but fet at defiance all the skill and dexterity of the most ingenious artift. "In thoughts from the vifions of 'the night, when deep fleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to fhake. Then a fpirit pailed before my face; the hair ' of my fleth ftood up; it stood ftill, but I could not difcern the form 'thereof; an image was before 'mine eyes; there was filence, and 'I heard a voice.' "In fact, perfons of real candour, who are capable of difcerning, and of giving attention to the beauties of nature, will acknowledge the existence of many fine and firiking landfcapes which can not God, forgive him! not be imitated or difplayed by the He dies, and makes no fign:-0 "It is therefore the duty of the painter, who by his art would illuftrate that of the poet, to confider in every particular inftance, whether the defcription or image be really picturefque. I am loth to blame where there is much to commend, and where the artift poffeffes high and deferved reputation. But will it not be admitted that the picture by Reynolds, which reprefents the death of cardinal Beaufort as defcribed by Shakespeare, is liable to the cenfure of injudicious felection in the choice of a fubject? Or is it poffible for any colouring or delineation to convey the horror of the fituation fo impreffively as in the words of the poet ? Sal. Difturb him not, let him pafs peaceably. "The fubject is entitled to more particular confideration. - Certain difpofitions of mind produce great effects on the body; agitate the whole frame; imprefs or diftort the features. Others again, more latent, or more referved, fupprefs their external fymptoms, fcorn or reject, or are not fo capable of external difplay; and occafion no remarkable, or no immediate change in limb, colour, or feature. Such peculiar feelings and affections, averfe to render themselves visible, are not fit fubjects for that art which affects the mind, by prefenting to the eye the refemblant figns of its objects. Defpair is of this number: fuch ut ter defpair as that of Cardinal Beaufort. It will not complain, for it expects no redrefs; it will not lament, for it defires no fympathy; brooding upon its hopeless affliction, it neither weeps, nor fpeaks, nor gives any fign. But, in the picture under review, the painter_reprefents the chief character in violent and extreme agitation. Nor is even that agitation, if we allow defpair to difplay agitation, of a kind fufficiently appropriated. Is it the fullen anguith, the fuppreffed agony, the horrid gloom, the tortured foul of despair? No: It is the agitation of bodily pain. The poor abject fufferer gnafhes his teeth, and writhes his body, as under the torment of corporal fuffering. The anguish is not that of the mind.— No doubt, at a preceding moment, before his defpondency was completely ratified, the poet reprefents him as in great perturbation; but the affliction is from the pangs of death. War. See how the pangs of death L feelings could not be painted.. In fact, the affectionate aftonishment and pious horror of Henry were fitter for delineation, than the filent, fullen, and uncommunicative despair of Beaufort. "The rage of delineating to the But after his defpair receives full confirmation from the heartfearching fpeech of Henry, his feelings are feared with horror, and his agony will give no fign.' For the moment of the picture is not when Beaufort is faid to be grinning with mortal anguifh; but the more aw-eye all that is reckoned fine in writful moment, when having heard the ing may be illuftrated also, in the request of Henry, he finks, of confe- performances of other able and faquence, into the deepest defpon- mous artists. In Gray's Ode on the dency. Before that, it would have Spring, we have the following alle been no other than the picture of a gorical defcription: man, of any man whatever, expiring with bodily pain. If indeed the picture is to exprefs any thing peculiar or characteristic, it must be defpair formerly excited, but now ratified and confirmed by the speech of Henry. "In fhort, the paffage, highly fublime and affecting, as it muft be acknowledged, is more poetical than picturefque: and the artift has wafted, on an ill-chofen fubject, his powers, rather of execution in this inftance, than of invention. Surely we see no masterly invention in the preternatural being placed behind or befide the Cardinal; for though the poet has faid, in the character of Henry, that a bufy meddling fiend was laying fiege to his foul;' yet as the fpeaker did not actually fee the fiend, there was no occafion for introducing him, like the devil in a puppet-fhow, by the fide of his bed. Nor is there much invention in the ftale artifice of concealing the countenance of the king, because his 6 Lo! where the rofy-bofom'd hours, "The hours accordingly, adorned with rofes difpofed as the poet describes them, are reprefented on canvafs, as a company of jolly damfels, twiching or pulling another very beautiful and buxom female, who is reprefented as fleeping on a bank, and clothed with a purple petticoat. Seeing fuch things, it is impoffible not to think of Quarles's or Hugo's emblems. The thought, who fhall deliver me from this body of fin and death,' is prefented to the eye, in one of them, by the figure of a man enclosed within the ribs of a monftrous and hideous skeleton. In truth, the inventor of the prints in fome editions of the Pilgrim's Progrefs (where, among others, Chriftian is reprefented as trudging along like a pedlar, with a burden on his back) is entitled to the merit of priority in the extravagance of fuch inventions; for let it be remembered, that it is only againft extravagancies and mifapplications, and not against the invention itself, that I have ventured to remonftrate." PHILOSO |