i6 



To this lift Mr. Ogilby adds half-a-dozen other meanings of the 

 word ya, according to its accentuation, but which none except a na- 

 tive can properly pronounce.* Nor is it foreign to our purpofe to 

 take notice, that Father Magailian, who refided five-and-twenty years 

 in the country, and received the applaufe of the Chinefe themfelves 

 for his compofitions in their tongue, has obferved that the Chinefe 

 language is the mofl: facile and accommodating of any in the known 

 world, the Greek itfelf not having furpaffed it in copioufnefs and va- 

 riety, in perfpicuity or in fweetnefs, and though confining of between 

 five or fix thoufand letters, yet poflefllng no more than three hundred 

 and twenty words, all monofyllables ; but thefe by artificial combina- 

 tions and accents fo modified and varied, as to form the mofl: luxu- 

 riant and eloquent harmony. This peculiar genius of the language ad- 

 mirably fits it both for poetry and for rhime, the decus et tutamen of 

 numbers ; and accordingly we fhall prefently fee that the rhime inva- 

 riably prevails in the Chinefe poetry. Thofe languages too, which 

 abound in monofyllables, are obferved to rhime with the mofl: eafe ; 

 a remark fo obvious as fcarce to deferve notice. This monofyliabic qua- 

 lity in the Hebrew may however have been one of the principal caufes 

 why rhime took fuch ftrong poffcfllon of its poetry, and continues to 

 charafterize mofl: of the Englifh, with the whole of the Gallic verfe, 

 and more or lefs the entire poetry of Europe. 



Though 



^a' 



* Father Le Compte, in his letter from China to the Archbifliop of Rheims, obferves, 

 that if you do not take care, you may call a man a btajl, when you intended to fay 

 Sir. 



