306 Mr. Davis on the Poetuy of the Chinese. 



character from the rapid succession of dactyls : and again, by the opposite 

 artifice, used by tlie same poet in painting the blinded giant, where the 

 heavy spondaic measure of the line, joined to the redundant terminal syl- 

 lables, is equally expressive in another way. The discussion of this point, 

 however, is rendered somewhat superfluous by the plain fact, that all 

 Chinese words are not pronounced in the same time. Of what are called 

 tlie " four tones," it is the professed business of the third to prolong, and 

 of the fourth to shorten them. 



Tlie truth seems to be, tliat the language of China abounds in diphthongal 

 at least, if not in triphthongal sounds, which contribute, when found blended 

 witii others that are more strictly monosyllabic, to give to its verse a cei'- 

 tain share of varied euphony. There is no occasion to incur the charge of 

 attempting to prove too much — at tlic same tune it does not seem very easy 

 to shew, why such words as kecw and keaou, with every vowel clearly pro- 

 nounced, should not advance nearly as good a claim to the title even of 

 trisyllabic,* as those marked in the following examples, each of them con- 

 sisting of as many metrical syllables as it has letters. 



Not only, however, do voxcel sounds so extensively prevail in the lan- 

 guage of which we treat, but the few consonants that are to be found in it 

 are, almost without exception, free fiom the reproach of harshness. There 

 is no terminal consonant whatever, except n and its nasal ng ;t and the initials 

 are only Ch — F — G hard — H (if it may be called a consonant)— J, soft as 

 in Fiench— K— I.— M—N—P—S - Sz—Sh—T—Th—Ts—and Tsz. Of 

 tliese, Tsz, and if you please Ts, are the only sounds which approach to the 

 character of harshness. The Chinese find it no easy matter to pronounce 

 English words ; but Englishmen meet with little difficulty in pronouncing 

 tlieirs — the natural inference from which is, tliat our own language, though 

 certainly more varied, is the harsher of tiie two. 



We shall presently see that they possess the usual means, employed by 

 other nations, to give harmony and rythmical eilect to their verse : but it 



* They nlight more strictly, perhaps, be termed triphthongal. 



f It must be kept in mind, that wc here treat of the dialect of literature, and of educated 

 persons. In the south of the empire, vrords end in k and / ; but provincial corruptions and vul- 

 garisms form no part of the subject. 



