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word fignified any corporeal fubftance, what would be fo natural as an imitation of its figure? Nay, it is probable the first attempts at writing would altogether confift of fuch figures. For, fo long as men lived in a state of wild nature, their abstract ideas would doubtless be very few; corporeal objects would naturally employ their whole attention; in certain rude imitations of which the whole of their literature would be apt to confift. The first and most obvious kind of writing, then, muft be by way of picture, or hieroglyphic. And in feveral nations this will be found to have prevailed, in a greater or lefs degree of improvement, in proportion, as they have more or lefs emerged from their original ignorance and barbarity.

love of uniformity, and, as literature improved, the more frequent occafion to exprefs abftracted ideas, would naturally caufe an exclufion of the former. In this ftate is the prefent literature of China. Where although arbitrary characters have entirely fupplanted picture or hieroglyphic, they still exhibit fome veftiges of that more ancient way of writing, fufficient to convince us that the first attempts of the Chinese were of that kind. This plainly appears in the characters used to exprefs the fun and the moon these we are affured were at first thus naturally reprefented,

Ge the fun, and D Yue the moon, which, in conformity with their angular way of writing, are at prefent Ge and Yue +.

The first inventors of writing in China, not having hit upon an alphabet of letters expreffive of their cral language; by degrees fupplied the want of it with these arbitrary characters: and their fucceffors, ignorant of any other kind of writing, beftowed their whole attention to cultivate and improve thefe, till at length they have formed them into a complete language, fufficient for all the purpofes of literature.

Picture or hieroglyphic in its rudeft form may be feen in the wild attempts of fome of the favages of North America*: in a more improved ftate in the writings of the Mexicans; of which fome curious fpecimens are still preferved in the Bodleyan library. Thefe however feem to be little more than mere pictures: but, as no abftracted idea can be reprefented in picture, a small degree of mental improvement would foon convince This language being wholly admen of the infufficiency of thefe, dreffed to the eye, and having no and this would lead them, either affinity with their tongue, as spokto intermix with their pictures ar- en; the latter hath ftill continued bitrary figns, or to give to them in its original, rude, uncultivated arbitrary meanings and this ap- ftate; while the former hath repears to be the cafe in the hiero ceived all poflible improvements. glyphics of the Egyptians. Thofe The Chinese tongue is barren and figns, once admitted, would foon contracted, wholly confifting of a take the lead, and pictures would few undeclinable and uncompoundwholly give place to characters. ed monofyllablest the Chinese The conveniency of difpatch, the characters, on the contrary, are aSee baron La Hontan's travels. Eng. Lond. 1703. vol. 2. p 86. † P. Magalhaëns Hitt. of Chin, Chap. 4, p. 69. P. Du Halde, tom. 2. p. 257. $P.Di Halde, tom. 2. p. 233. 04 mazingly

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mazingly numerous and compli cated nor does the Greek language itfelf exhibit words that are compounded with more fpirit and ingenuity, than are fome of thefe characters.

Thefe are the repofitories and vehicles of all the eloquence, learn, ing and knowledge of the Chinese which are fo interwoven with thefe characters, that to lay them now afide and to adopt an alphabet on ly expreffive of their oral language, would be at once to diveft themfelves of their learning, eloquence and knowledge, and to reduce themselves to their primitive ignorance. This may ferve as an anfwer to fuch writers + as inconfiderately object to the Chinese, their chufing to retain their own arbitrary characters, rather than to adopt an elementary alphabet like other nations. Could they indeed, when they parted with their characters, receive a new language, copious as the Greek, or precife and accurate as fome of the modern ones, they would be gainers by the exchange. But the Chinefe oral language, in its prefent uncultivated flate, is (as was faid) unfit for literature, and hence all their proceffes, pleadings and judicial examinations, are wholly tranfact ed by petition and memorial: a method of proceeding beft fuited to the taciturnity of this phlegmatic people.

gorous part of human life is spent by the Chinese in learning to read and write. And though in learn ing to read and write, they learn at the fame time all the arts and fciences, yet before they are mafters of the learning already known, the time is paft for making new difcoveries, and they have no longer leifure nor ability to aim at great improvements. After men are paffed a certain time of life the Ipirit of enquiry is dulled and blunted; and they are rather tempted to go on in the beaten round their predeceffors have used before them, than to venture on untrodden paths of literature. The Chinese way of writing then, is in this refpect inferior to ours, that it does not fo foon furnish them with the knowledge and learning already provided to their hands. It requires fo much more time and pains for them to climb to the top of the edifice, that when once they have arrived there, they have less time or ability to raise it higher.

The literature of the Chinese is, we fee, more likely to remain what it is, than to be improved by new acquifitions: and fo peculiarly. circumstanced are these people, that it does not seem to be in their power to remedy the inconvenience. What man, or body of men is equal to the stalk of newforming a language? And until I faid above, the Chinese would the Chinese are provided with a be gainers by fuch an exchange; new vehicle for their literature, for after all that can be urged in how is it poffible for them to lay favour of their characters, to them afide that in which it is conveyed is probably owing the flow pro- at prefent? Such an alteration in grefs the fciences have made in the language must be made at China, notwithstanding they have once, for fo long as the Chinese been cultivated fo many thoufand cultivate their written characters, years. The finest and most view they have no inducement to im

See Lord Anfon's Voyage by Walter, &c.

prove or adorn their oral tongue; and they will fo long be tempt ed to neglect it. We fee then, the difficulties they lie under, fuppofing they were fenfible of the difadvantage to which they are fubjected in this refpect: but this is by no means the cafe, for their national pride prevents them from entertaining the leaft fufpicion that their own literature is not the moft perfect of the kind; and the ignorance and inferiority of fuch of their neighbours as ufe alphabets of letters, no way tends to give them favourable impreffions of their importance.

The miffionaries have, it is true, convinced them that the fciences have arrived to greater perfection in Europe than in China: but they have by no means brought them to acknowledge that this was owing to the different nature of their writing: or, if they had, how could they help themselves, unless with the European alphabets they could alfo adopt fome European language.

The difadvantage the Chinese lie under in the manner we have already feen, is so great, that we need not aggravate it by groundlefs fears that their literature will ever be loft it is confeffed the Egyptian hieroglyphics are become inexplicable, and it is acknowledged that the characters of the Chinese could never be decypher ed, fhould the meaning of them once ceafe to be known; a mif fortune to which alphabets of letters are not fo liable but the Chinese characters feem to run no

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danger of this kind: the knowledge of them is not confined to a fmall body of men, and thofe carful to conceal their meaning from others, as was the cafe in Egypt. The Chinese characters lie open to all all are invited by every prevailing inducement to ftudy them: all poffible helps are contrived to facilitate and perpetuate the knowledge of them: thousands of volumes on all fubjects are written in them and dictionaries, vocabularies, and grammars without number have been made to explain them. Having fubfifted fo many thousand years under fo many domeftic revolutions and foreign conquefts: having furvived as well the neglects of barbarous invaders, as the profcriptions of domeftic tyrants, it is probable they will fubfift to the remoteft times. They and their government feem in all refpects co-eval: they both began, and will probably both expire together: but, if we may judge from the experience of four thoufand years, this will hardly happen before the end of time.

It is not my intention here to enter into the minutiae of the Chinefe literature: be it fufficient to obferve, that as the words of an oral language are reducible to a few fimple primitive founds, fo the Chinese characters amidit all their various and infinite combinations are to be reduced to nine or ten fimple ftrokes† ; And as all tongues confift of primitive words and derivative, fo these characters are fome radical and fimple, others derived and compounded. Again,

The Mogul and Indian nations to the weft, and the Tartars to the north of China ufe alphabēts.

+ Bayer Gram. Sin. p. 103.-P, Du Halle and others reckon the primitive Arckes to be fix.

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where learning is attended with fuch honours and rewards: the Literati are reverenced as men of another fpecies, they are the only nobility known in China: be their birth never fo mean and low, they become Mandarines of the highest rank in proportion to the extent of their learning on the other hand be their birth never fo exalted, they quickly fink into poverty and obfcurity, if they neglect those studies which raifed their fathers. It is a fond and groundless notion of fome late writers, who ought to have known better, that there is a key to the Chinese characters, hidden from the common people, and referved as a fecret in fome few families of the great. On the con trary, there is no nation in the world where the first honours of the ftate lie fo open to the lowest of the people, and where there is lefs of hereditary and traditional greatnefs. All the ftate employments in China are the rewards of literary merit: and they are continually grafped by hands lifted up from among the common people.

as every additional ftroke conftitutes a new character, and as every diftinct idea, and every mode of relation is expreffed by a distinct character, we are not to wonder that the Chinese characters fhould be fo extremely numerous. The number of our ideas is almost infinite: what wonder then that the characters of the Chinese fhould amount to 80,000*, many of which stand for entire sentences. Were every word in our own language, when it is used in a different fenfe; when it is compounded with another word; when it ftands connected with a new particle, adjective or verb; when it is ufed in a different cafe, number, gender, or the like; were it, I fay, upon every fuch change in its fituation, to be reckoned a new and diftinct word; especially when all our obfolete words, with their feveral relations and dependencies, are added to the account; the number of our words would not fall much short of the Chinese. Eighty thousand is the number of Chinese characters contained in their largest dictionaries; we are told however that the most learned of their doctors feldom find it neceffary to be mafters of above half the number, and that a fourth part of these are fufficient for men to exprefs themselves on the common occafions of life. If the difficulty of maftering and retaining fuch a number of arbitrary marks, greatly retards the progrefs of their literature ; on the other hand the Chinese have all poffible induce-stands out, and fometimes falls ments to cultivate and purfue it. There is no part of the globe

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But to return, if thefe characters are difficult to the natives, on account of their number and complexity; their oral language is no lefs fo to foreigners on account of the peculiarity of the founds, employed in it. P. Du Halde § tells us, that the very make of the Chinefe mouths is different from that of Europeans Their teeth "are placed in a different manner from ours: the upper row

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upon the under lip, or at least "" on the gums of the under row,

*P. Du Halde, tom. 2 p. 226, + P. Du Halde, ubi fupra.

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§ Vol. 2. f. 104.

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form to myfelf an idea of paradife more delightful than that ftate in which our first parents were placed: that did not laft because they did not know the world; (which is the true reafon that there are fo few love-matches happy.) Eve may be confidered as a foolish child, and Adam a man very little enlightened. When people of that fort meet, they may, perhaps, be amorous at firft, but that cannot laft. They form to the.nfelves, in the violence, of their paffions, ideas above nature; a man thinks his mistress an angel because she is handfome; a woman is inchanted with the merit of her lover, because he adores her. The first change of her complexion takes from his adoration, and the husband ceafing to adore her, becomes hateful to her, who had no other foundation for her love; by degrees they are difgufted with one another, and, after the example of our firft parents, they throw on each other the crime of their mutual weaknefs; afterwards coldness and contempt follow a great pace, and they believe they muft hate each other because they are married; their fmaileft faults are magnified in each others fight, and they are blinded to their mu tual perfections. A commerce efta blifhed upon paffion can have no other attendants. A man, when he marries his miftrefs, ought to forget that the then appears adorable to him; to confider that he is but a fimple mortal, fubject to difcafes, caprice, and ill-humour. He must prepare his conftancy to fupport the lofs of her beauty, and collect a fund of complacency, which is neceffaty for the continual converfation of the perfon who is moft-agrecable, and the least un

equal. The woman, on her fide, must not expect a continuance of flatteries and obedience. She must difpofe herself to obey agreeably, a fcience very difficult, and, of confequence, of great merit to a man capable of feeling. She muft ftrive to heighten the charms of a mistress by the good sense and solidity of a friend. When two perfons, prepoffeffed with fentiments fo reafonable, are united by eternal ties, all nature fmiles upon them, and the common objects become charming.

It appears to me a life infinitely more delightful, more elegant, and more pleafurable, than the best conducted and most happy gallantry. A woman capable of reflection cannot but look upon her lover as her feducer, who would take advantage of her weakness to give himself a momentary pleasure, at the expence of her repofe, of her glory, and of her life. A highwayman, who claps a pistol to the breaft, to take away your purse, appears to me more honeft and lefs guilty; and I have fo good an opinion of myfelf as to think, was Ia man, I fhould be as capable to lay the plan of an affaffmation as that of debauching an honest woman, refpectable in the world, and happy, in her marriage. Should I be capable of empoisoning a heart by infpiring it with an unhappy paffion, to which the must facrifice her honour,tranquillity, and virtue! Shall I render a perfon defpicable because the appears amiable to me! Shall I reward her tenderness by rendering her house no longer agreeable, her children indifferent, and her husband hateful! I believe thefe reflections would appear of the fame force, if my fex did ren

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