104 " COSMOS 



freshness of the meadows, of the forest-crowned hills, and the 

 peaceful dwellings of men, wdth the somber picture of the 

 tombs of his forefathers. The sacrifices which he offers in 

 obedience to the rites prescribed by Confucius, and the pious 

 remembrance of the departed monarchs and warriors, form 

 the principal objects of this remarkable poem. A long enu- 

 meration of the wild plants and animals that are natives oi 

 the region is wearisome, like every other didactic work ; but 

 the blending of the visible impressions produced by the land- 

 scape, which serves, as it were, for the back-ground of the pic- 

 ture, watb the exalted objects of the ideal world, with the ful- 

 fillment of religious duties, together with the mention of great 

 historical events, gives a peculiar character to the whole com- 

 position. The feeling of adoration for mountains, which was 

 so deeply rooted among the Chinese, leads Kien-long to give a 

 careful delineation of the physiognomy of inanimate nature, for 

 which the Greeks and Romans evinced so little feeling. The 

 form of the separate trees, the character of their ramification, 

 the direction of the branches, and the form of the foliage, are 

 all dwelt on with special predilection.* 



If I have not yielded to the distaste for Chinese literature^ 

 which is, unfortunately, disappearing too slowly from among 

 us, and if I have dwelt too long on the consideration of the 

 delineations of nature met with in the works of a cotemporary 

 of Frederic the Great, I am so much the more bound to as- 

 cend seven and a haK <jcnturies further back into the annals 

 of time, in order to r?ier to the poem of the Garden, by See- 

 ma-kuang, a celebra-ttJ. statesman. The pleasure grounds de- 

 scribed in this poem are certainly much crowded by buildings 

 in the fashion of the old Italian villas, but the minister like- 

 wise celebrates a hermitage, which is situated among rocks 

 and surrounded by high fir-trees. He extols the open vicAV 

 over the broad river Kiang, crowded with vessels, and ex- 

 pects, with contentment, the arrival of friends, who will read 

 their verses to him, since they will also listen to his composi- 

 tions. t See-ma-kuang wrote about the year 1086, when, in 

 Germany, poetry was in the hands of a rude clergy, and Avaa 

 not even clothed in the garb of the national tongue. 



At this period, and probably five hundred years earlier, the 

 inhabitants o^ China, of Eastern India, and Japan, were al- 



* Eloge de la Ville de Moiihden, Foe me compose par TEraperem 

 Kien-long. traduit par le P. Amiot, 1770, p. 18, 22-25, 37, 63-68, 7 3-87 

 104, and 120. 



\ Meinoires ccncernant les Chinois, t. ii , p. G43-650. 



