The passage which I shall next set out, (from the Iliad also,) exhibits, in every word of it, a minute description of most of the peculiar charac teristics of the Chinese: 18 Il. 491,

εν τη μεν ρα γαμοι τ' εσαν ειλαπίναι τε Νύμφας δ' εκ θαλαμων δαιδων υπολαμπομενάων Ηγινεον ανα αςυ' πολυς υμέναιος ορώρει

Κεροι δ' ορχηςήρες δίνεον, εν δ αρα τοισιν
Αυλοι φόρμιγγες τε βοην εχον αι δε γυναίκες
Ιςαμεναι θαυμαζον επι προθύροισιν εκαςη
Λαοι δ' ειν αγορή εσαν αθρόοι ενθαδε νεικος
Ωρωρει δυο δ' ανδρες ενείκεον είνεκα ποινής
Ανδρος αποφθιμενο ο μεν ευχετο παντ' αποδέναι
Δημω πιφαύσκων ο δ' αναίνετο μηδεν ελεσθαι
Αμφω δ' ιεσθην επι ιςορι πειρας ελεσθαι
Λαοι δ' αμφοτερωθεν επηπυον αμφις αρωγοι
Κηρυκες δ' αρα λαον ερητυον οιδε γεροντες
Ειατ' επι ξεςοισι λίθοις, ιερω ενα κυκλω
Σκηπτρα δε κηρύκων εν χερσ' εχον κεροφωνων
Τοισιν επειτ' ηισσον αμοιβηδις δ' εδικάζον.

These lines contain a repetition of most of the circumstances noticed in regard to the Chinese in the Odyssey; such as their banqueting, the frequency of matrimony among them, and indeed of polygamy, woλus uuevalos, and (if we take the word wupas to allude to the rivers and canals which lead to and connect their cities together), dador will refer to the lanterns which are seen in such numbers on the banks of those rivers and

canals. Their tumblers (opиnges) are not forgotten, and an additional circumstance is introduced, that of the extreme noisiness of their music (Co Exo), and their great serpents, long pipes, or other wind instruments are alluded to by auλor. The remarkable custom of (the women in particular) standing at the doors of their houses and gazing with wonder at foreigners; the vast multitudes assembled in their markets; the circular form of their courts of justice, founded upon polished granite stones; the hollowness (nɛgowvwv) of the bamboo-canes, with which they inflict punishment upon criminals, edixalov; and finally, that most singular sort of punishment called the

ον

TCHA, or moveable pillory (for from the force of the word πειρας I understand επι ιςορι πειρας ελεola to allude to that pillory); are all circumstances again and again observed by travellers who have written upon China; and to shew that this very singular punishment of the tcha is noticed elsewhere, and at the same time to prove that the Chinese were not unknown nor forgotten by the Latin classics, I cite the line of Horace,

Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret;

where, by furca (fur, and teha, a punishment for thieves) I understand the sort of punishment in question; which perhaps may be more readily admitted, if it be further stated, that the 10th epistle of the first book of Horace, from which that line is extracted, is in fact no other than an epistle supposed by the poet to be addressed to the Chinese people, under the name of Fuscus Aristius; the first name alluding to their swarthy tawney complexion, and the second to an element with which they are peculiarly conversant, that

element being water; for we have the authority of Pindar that αριςον μεν υδωρ1st Olymp.

There is one particular, however, for which they have been in all ages so remarkable, that I should have felt some doubt whether Homer had any knowledge of them at all, if I had found no mention of it in his immortal poems. I allude to the silk manufacture, which the Chinese are so successful in deriving from their well-known worm, by a process, now so common and habitual, that, though it is in truth a most wonderful thing, yet, like every thing else with which we are familiar, it has long ceased to excite any wonder at all. How to speak of such a thing poetically, so as not to disclose in an instant what was meaned (which, in fact, it would not be poetical to do,) could only be for such a poet as Homer to effect. But, to go back for a moment to the Odyssey : 7 Od. 104,

Αι μεν αλετρεύεσι μύλης επι μηλοπα καρπον
Αι δ' ιςος υφοωσι και ηλακατα ςρωφωσιν
Ημεναι οια τε φύλλα μακεδνης αίγειροιο
Καιροσεων τ' οθονεων απολείβεται υγρον ελαιον

In these lines I think the attention of the poet was directed to the silk-worms and the leaves of the mulberry-trees, μиλодα иαgπоov, on which they chiefly feed; aλerçεʊ8σ may allude to the holes perforated by the insects in the silk pods; μvans, to their spinning it into the pods as by a mill; υγρον ελαιον, to the unctuous oily colour of the new silk, and ε and oα in unλoжα seem to contain an oblique allusion to the worm itself (quasi, 17, a worm). I think also that the lines which come shortly after the last quotation"(and which were cited above in evidence of the sort of constant poetical autumn, or perpetual supply of the fruits of the garden, in China) were intended further as a description of the constant labours of the silkflies; the words μηλεαι αγλαόκαρποι, denoting the glossiness of the silk; ελαιαι τηλεθόωσαι referring to its olive colour, when new; and ETIKETTE, by a twofold suggestion of the sound of

α, a worm, bringing to mind the nature of the little animal whose labours are so wonderfully productive.

In addition to these remarks, I am further of