4l6 Mr. Davis on the Poetry of the Chinese. 



•' Thus alone and dauntless he walked — all confident in his courage ; 

 Thus proud and reserved — he must needs possess high talents : 

 Courage — as if Tszeloong, the hero, had re-appeared in the world ; 

 Talents — as though Lepih, the poet, had again been bom." 



" A hundred — a thousand — ten thousand projects arc hard to accomplish ; 

 Five times — six times — ten years very soon arrive: 

 When you have found a day to be idle — ^be idle for a day ; 

 When you have met with three cups to drink — then drink your three cups!" 



The constructional parallelism of sentences extends to prose composition, 

 and is very frequent in what is called wun-chang, or fine writing, which is 

 a measured prose, though not written line beside line, like poetry. Indeed 

 all the three kinds may be met with occasionally in every description of 

 writing that soars above the style of mere conversation or narrative. They 

 do not alone constitute poetry, which must have the several other qualifi- 

 cations already mentioned, as measure, rhyme, &c. — but being allied to 

 art and embellishment, they claim verse as their proper province, and are 

 carried there to a greater degree of refinement than elsewhere. The three 

 following prose sentences, in which there is a parallelism throughout, com- 

 bined with a sort of anti-climax, are introduced chiefly for the sake of 

 noticing a striking coincidence of sentiment, in a quarter where one is not 

 prepared to meet with it, except in the case of the most obvious, simple, 

 and general truths. 



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Shang pin che jin, puh keaou urh shen ; 

 Chung pin che jin, keaou urh how shen ; 

 Hea pin che jin, keaou, urh puh shen. 



The highest order of men (called Shing, perfect or inspired) are virtuous, or wise. 



