592 OBSERVATIONS ON THE RODENTIA. 



written thus, called Neaouyang or Shantoo." (Heuen &c., 

 Part 12, Zoology, page 9). 



This closes the chain of evidence collected relative to the 

 animals which have any pretensions to rank in their works 

 with mankind. The observations made with regard to the 

 Sing-sing apply very nearly here. The same difference of 

 native opinion casts the same doubt upon the authenticity of 

 their accounts. Natural History, as a science even of obser- 

 vation, has been, and under the present system always will 

 be, at a low condition among a people, where all knowledge 

 but that of government and morals, ranks scarcely above the 

 mechanical arts. The collection of a few popular traditions, 

 — the rough delineation of objects as vaguely seen, not com- 

 prehended, — has been all that China can boast; and the 

 practical and deeply-theoretical examinations and inductions 

 which build up the towering structure of western lore, must 

 be infused into them from without, the Chinese have it not in 

 them, and, with their distaste for innovation, they never can 

 examine the products of nature with the eye of accuracy and 

 generalizing power. The Zoology of the San tsae too hwuy is 

 a glaring instance of this ; the fabulous and the true — imagi- 

 nation and observation — are alike blended in a disorder start- 

 ling to a European eye. The ' Urhya' is rather more correct, 

 for it has at least the merit of arrangement in great classes, 

 wide and abrupt in their transitions, but still holding out suf- 

 ficient landmarks for future improvement. The ' Shan hae 

 king ' is one mass of confusion ; it rejects indignantly all ar- 

 rangement. The Japanese Encyclopedia has a mere glim- 

 mering of presenting its animals according to their type ; — an 

 idea feebly maintained. The only work in which the writer 

 of the present article has seen any allusion to the modern sys- 

 tem, was in one apparently new, where the artist had, in ad- 

 dition to some birds, depicted the claws and beaks, which 

 must have been gathered from some European work, since 

 such was utterly beyond Chinese power. Yet we must still 

 concede to the Chinese that they have observed and noted, to 

 the best of their ability, the animals existing in their own 

 country, and have most signally failed where they have relied 

 on mistaken information afforded from external sources ; and 

 that European writers of their date present as little truth. 



(To be continued.) 



