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Mr. Dapis on the Poetry oj the Chinese. 



men, at others of ugly monsters, — in infinite variety. They delight most 

 in frustrating the attempts made by the devotees of F6, or Budha, to reach 

 a superhuman state, and whenever these chance to waver the least in their 

 faith or practice, they become immediately possessed (cho leaou moo), that 

 is, the malicious spirits acquire a dominion over them." Being asked if he 

 believed in their existence, he seemed rather unprepared to answer, but 

 observed, that they possessed the greatest influence over the minds of the 

 country people, and the devotees of the superstition above-mentioned. It 

 may be noticed, that Confucius neither gave the express sanction of his 

 opinion to the existence of unembodied sjnrits, nor did he expressly deny 

 the same : but transmitted these early traditions of his country exactly as 

 he found them ; busying himself chiefly with the more important concerns 

 of political government and morals. 



Several of the pieces already given might be arranged under the descrip- 

 tive class. The following quotation from a novel called the ' Dreams of 

 the Red Chamber,' is rather a poetical account of a young Chinese profligate, 

 although it consists of a \GTy irregular species of verse, in six and seven 

 words. Tiie version below is iineatim, and almost verbatim, and pretends 

 to nothing more than a very close adherence to the sense of the original ; 

 whicli, it must be remarked, is not an extract from a long poem, but one 

 of those poetical breaks, with which prose works of taste are generally em- 

 bellished. 



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