418 Mr. Davis on the Poetry of the Chbiese. 



tragedies, and the unities of the drama — " L'art en devieiit plus difficile, 

 et les difficultes vaincues donnent en tout genre du plaisir et de la gloire." 



The Chinese are so fond of their parallelisms, tliat the most common 

 decorations of rooms, halls, and temples, are ornamental labels hung oppo- 

 site to each other, or side by side, and called Tiiy-Veen, which has precisely 

 the meaning of the English term. These are sometimes inscribed on 

 coloured paper, sometimes carved on wood, and distinguished by painting 

 and gilding — but always in pairs. They have generally an allusion to the 

 circumstances of tiie dwelling, or of the inhabitant : and, by way of illus- 

 tration merely, we miglit imagine some Cliinese, who affected a just 

 mediocrity in his desires and wishes, suspending on one side of his study 

 a sentence which should have the meaning of 



Caret obsoleti sordibus tecti, 



and, exactly opposite to it, another sentence in as many words, 



Caret invidenda sobrius aul.i. 



The two first of the following examples were supplied by the kindness of 

 Dr. Morrison :* they were taken down by him, during our progress with the 

 British embassy, in the interior of China. The last couplet I wrote down 

 myself, on a visit to a native. 



^ ?A 



• In conversing with Dr. Morrison on this property of Chinese verse, and remarking that it 

 was common to other languages, lie suggested my adding to the present treatise a close com- 

 parison (like the one which I have here instituted) with the instances adduced by Bishop Lowth 

 from the Hebrew, For tlie hint, thcrcfoic, I stand indebted to him. 



