example given by Du Ponceau, (kuligatchis,) one is led to conclude, that it depends upon the speaker to change whole words or parts of words, and combine them together in one locution, &c." *

We shall conclude our remarks, with a brief recapitulation of some of the results stated by Mr. Du Ponceau.

He has, we think, established by a very satisfactory course of reasoning the several propositions which we have before quoted from him at large; and has successfully combated the old and general opinion, that the Chinese system of writing is ideographic; showing that the characters do not represent ideas, but words, which recall ideas.

He is the first writer, to our knowledge, who has observed the important fact, that the Cochin-Chinese, in numerous instances, applied the Chinese characters to the sound, and not to the meaning, of the words represented by them; a fact, which clearly proves that the characters are not ideographic. We may here add a remark, which has often occurred to us on this subject; that the Chinese characters are each applied to numerous things, and may (some of them) have thirty or forty meanings, according to the accent or inflexions of the voice. Now we ask, how is it possible, that any such written character can be ideographic; in other words, how such a character can be the picture of so many different things at the same time?

Conformably to these views, Mr. Du Ponceau has, with much skill and judgment systematized the science of written signs, or graphology, as he has somewhere called it, by dividing the systems of writing into three classes;-lexigraphic, for entire words, like the Chinese; syllabic, for syllables not having necessarily an acknowledged meaning; and elementary, for what we call letters, or the least component part of a syllable. And, in respect to the case of arithmetical figures, to which the Chinese characters are likened, his opinion is, that they can never constitute a language, though they are auxiliary to some sciences, like telegraphic signs, &c.; but their use must always be very limited.

The ideologists, if we may use the term, argue, that the Chinese characters perpetuate the meaning or ideas, while alphabetical characters perpetuate sounds only; but neither of these propositions is true. The latter is not true; for if it

* Ueber die Kawi-Sprache auf der Insel Java. Vol. I. Introd. p. cccxxxii. 4to. Berlin, 1836.

+ Pages 289, 290.

were, we should now have the pronunciation of the Latin and Greek languages, whereas we do not even know that of our own language four hundred years ago, as any one may see by turning to his Chaucer, in verses where the metre does not agree with the syllables as we now read them. The words grace and face, for example, may have been dissyllables, - according to the pronunciation of the Gascons, and introduced by them while Gascony was an English province; or, to take another example, how were the Norman French words, jeo, ceo, pronounced? Mr. Du Ponceau conjectures, indeed, and upon good grounds, that ceo was pronounced as at the present day, in the patois of Poitou, that is, tcho, giving the c the Italian sound.* Again; it may be asked, in our own language, how Shakspeare pronounced the word aches, which brought such a torrent of ridicule upon the tragedian Kemble, who made a dissyllable of it.

But, though sounds are lost, the groups of letters called words retain their meaning quite as much as the Chinese characters; so that we can still read and understand Homer and Virgil, without knowing how they spoke; to say nothing of the syllabic groups of letters of the Sanscrit, a language long since dead, the ancient Coptic, Persian, Zend, &c.

Here we are reminded of a common remark of the sinologists (adopted by Mr. Barrow†), that the Chinese characters speak equally strong to the deaf and dumb as to others. So do our groups of letters. Deaf and dumb persons, who never heard a sound in their lives, are taught to read and understand our books; and, we would ask, can Chinese characters do more?

It is most manifest, that tradition alone keeps up and preserves the connexion between written or spoken signs and ideas; but written signs are only a secondary method, and were not intended to communicate ideas except through words; because language was invented before writing, and men could not have agreed upon the meaning of written signs, except as that meaning was clothed in the words of the language to which the characters were to be applied.

We cannot conclude the present article, without adding a few remarks upon the supposed difficulty of learning the Chinese language. It has been the fate of this curious dialect of one third part of the human race, to be enveloped in mystery,

* See his Mémoire, p. 102.

t Voyage to China, chap. 6.

ever since Europeans have known that there was such a language on the globe. The impression of its extreme difficulty was, doubtless, first derived from the accounts given of it by some of the early Catholic missionaries; and one of them, Father Nic. Longobardus, a Jesuit, so long ago as the year 1598, in a letter to his Superior, says, he was congratulated by one of his Chinese friends, on having finished reading two of their books, one De Adultorum Disciplina, and the other De Medio Sempiterno, as if he had accomplished a great task; but, though his Chinese friend, with a little national vanity, declared that no person, except a native, could understand those books, the reverend Father adds, very frankly adds, -"I found no more difficulty than in going through Cicero or Livy."* The opinion of its great difficulty, however, has been very general to the present day. But this and the other mysteries attendant on it, are now in some measure dissipated. Mr. Davis, whose practical knowledge of the subject is entitled to some deference on this point, — notwithstanding the sad failures in some of his Translations from the Chinese, for which he was too severely criticized on the Continent, - Mr. Davis, we say, assures us, that "the rumored difficulties, from the great number and variety of the characters are the mere exaggerations of ignorance"; and Mr. Du Ponceau's investigations have shown, that this language is not so very different from others in many of the particulars in question. It is true, that writers on this subject, from age to age, have continued to tell us of the eighty thousand characters, or words; yet a small part of these are in general use, and the rest slumber quietly in the national dictionaries, as a great proportion of our English words do in the vocabularies of our own lexicographers. Prémare, whose most valuable grammar (Notitia Lingua Sinica) has at length been published by the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, assures us, that after knowing five or six thousand characters, no book will stop one; and the Chinese themselves agree, that ten thousand are sufficient for a scholar, or lettered man, to know. Rémusat, also, in the Preface to his Grammar says, that the Chinese language "may be learned like any other, and does not require any greater effort of attention or memory."

* Epist. a P. Nicolao Longobardo, anno 1598, ab Sinis scriptæ, etc.; (in the Latin Collection, published by J. Hayes, 1605.)

t Davis's China, Vol. II. p. 141.

It is true, that many characters have the same sound, and this occasions ambiguity. But that happens in all other languages; as in English (to take our examples from Mr. Du Ponceau), when we use the words or characters fain, fane, or feign, the ear can ascertain the meaning by the context alone; and in French, cens, cent, sang, sans, sens, sent, are like so many Chinese written words, having but one sound.*

Again; the want of inflections, and the promiscuous use of the same word as a verb, noun, or adjective, at pleasure, are imagined to be a source of great difficulty; yet in these particulars the Chinese language is not so very different from our own, as we should, without reflection, be led to suppose. Thus, to take an example from Dr. Marshman's valuable Chinese Grammar, (Clavis Sinica,) the word sound, if it follows an article, is a substantive, a sound; if it follows a personal pronoun, it becomes a verb neuter, as I sound, they sound, or, with an object, an active or causal verb, they sound the bell; or, if it is placed between an article and a substantive, it becomes an adjective, as, a sound vessel. So much does the meaning and grammatical character of words in English, as well as in Chinese, depend upon their juxta-position; verifying the just remark of Humboldt, that, in some of our modern languages, especially in English, phrases of considerable length may be constructed which are perfectly Chinese." Ambiguities must, from the imperfection incident to all human language, happen among the Chinese, as well as other nations. We may add, however, as an amusing singularity, that, as no new word can be introduced without the imperial authority, so an ambiguity, even in a man's name, can be removed by the same power; as will be seen by the following curious proclamation from the "Government Gazette,” at Pekin," Whereas, the names of the Viceroy of Yunnen, and the Lieutenant-General of that province, being pronounced alike, though differently written, may occasion some confusion, it is therefore ordered, that the LieutenantGeneral, Shoo-lin, do change his name to Schoo-ching.' Edict of May 15th, 1800. Our host of English and American John-Smiths, would soon be extinguished in the Celestial Empire.

*Mémoire, p. 42.

t Lettre à M. Abel Rémusat, p. 16.

Many other alleged difficulties might be noticed, if our limits would permit. There are, in the Chinese, Cochin-Chinese, and other languages of that family, delicacies and peculiarities of idiom, accent, and tone, which foreigners never can acquire, any more than a Chinese could learn English so perfectly, as to pass for a native. In the Cochin-Chinese, for example, the natives speak in a singing tone, almost like the recitative of an Italian opera; as Captain White has personally informed us (with an imperfect imitation of the tones), and as is stated by Father Morrone, who says of their mode of utterance, "When they speak, they sing."* These niceties, however, are wholly unimportant to the philological student, or any other person, who does not intend to reside among the natives, but only wishes to acquire the written language; and this, we are convinced, can be accomplished with very little, if any more labor, than is necessary in learning any other language.

ART. VIII. - CRITICAL NOTICES.

1.- American Education; or, Strictures on the Nature, Necessity, and Practicability of a System of National Education, suited to the United States. By the Rev. BENJAMIN O. PEERS. With an Introductory Letter, by FRANCIS L. HAWKS, D. D. New York Published by John L. Taylor. 1838. 12mo. pp. 364.

LET any man, dwelling in the United States, consider this fact; that he is living in the midst of some millions of human beings, having strong bodies, strong wills, clear heads, and mighty passions; let him consider, further, that these millions suffer him to pursue his business, and sleep quietly at night, because they see it to be their interest, or feel it to be their duty, to do so, but that, as soon as they cease to see their interest, or feel their duty, they may pull his house about his ears and hang him upon the nearest tree; and he will feel, to his heart's core, the necessity of wide-spread moral and religious education to his own safety. And, should he go one

*MS. Vocab. Dr. Ruschenberger, in his account of the Embassy of Mr. Roberts, says the same.