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the mark of ineflimable antiquity. Every page of Confucius quotes the 

 Chi-Kim, or Volume of Verfe, mofi: of whofe odes, the great Sir Wil- 

 liara Jones affures us, " are near 3000 years old, and fome, if we give 

 credit to the Chinefe annals, confiderably older," CJones on China.) 

 certain of thefe odes, according to Le Compte, being compofed by Fohi 

 himfelf, and forming a part of this mofl ancient volume. But as their 

 language is ftated to be more than three thoufand feven hundred years 

 old, who fliall prefume to fix the beginning of their rhime, but with 

 their language itfelf ? If it be true, that their laws were compofed io 

 verfe, the better to affifl: the memory, and if, as agreed on all hands, 

 the Chinefe have a flrong affeaion to mufic, and that they who made 

 the laws put them into verfe, " afin que chacun pouvant chanter les 

 « chofes qui y font contenues, elles fuffent dans la bouche de tout le 

 " monde," let us ceafe to be afloniflied, that the harmonious [and im- 

 preffive rhime fliould charafterize the poetry of this wife and moral 

 people. In fuch efteem is the rhime held among them, that the roaJ 

 to honours and dignities lies but through the temple of their mufes i 

 and, independent of the Chi-Kim, fo very ancient is the Chinefe rhime, 

 that we have four Lilliputian lines, compofed by one of their ancient 

 kings, that while they remind us of Mr. Pope's " In amaze, loft I 

 gaze," far exceed it in fentiraent and poetry. They are worthy of 3 

 King. 



Voene khoo skene niiene 

 Louh shee nane piene 

 Chi troo i shingh 

 Chioo sliai trine kiene. 



" When the dragon and ferpent are ftiU, we know not the diffe- 

 rence, but no fooner do they begin to hifs, than we diftinguilh them.* 



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• The dragon is a device worn by the emperors, and was given to the Chinefe by 

 Fohi, as the fymbol of their nation. 



