ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



951 



the Inhabitants, and the occur- 

 rences during the navigation into the 

 interior of the country to the pe- 

 riod of disembarkation, are related 

 with much liveliness, and excite a 

 considerable degree of interest. 



In the third chapter our author 

 carries the reader with him most 

 agreeably through the capital to a 

 country villa of the emperor ; du- 

 ring which he becomes still better 

 acquainted with the physical and 

 moral condition of the inhabitants, 

 whilst the approach to Pekin and 

 the description of that city will af- 

 ford him a degree of entertainment,' 

 not easily to be paralleled in works 

 of this kind. The description of 

 the palace and gardens of Yiien-nnn- 

 yiien, and the remarks on the Chi- 

 nese mode of gardening, are inter- 

 esting features of this work ; and 

 the account, from lord Macartney's 

 journal, descriptive of the emperor's 

 great park of Gehol in Tartary, 

 " unrivalled in its features of beau- 

 ty, sublimity, and amenity,'' in- 

 duce us to wish that more extradits 

 from so valuable a source had en- 

 riched the present volume. 



Having, during his residence at the 

 capital and its neighbourhood, ac- 

 quired a competent degree of infor- 

 mation, Mr. Barrow enters, in his 

 fourth chapter, upon " the state of 

 society in China, the manners, cus. 

 toms, sentiments, and moral cha- 

 ra<fter of the people." As this 

 splendid book is out of the reach of 

 the generality of readers, from its 

 expensive form, we shall make no 

 apology for the length- of the fol- 

 lowing cxtraft, which nearly em- 

 braces the whole of this chapter, 

 and which, if not the most enter- 

 taining, is certainly the most in- 

 structive in the work. In it 

 Mr. Barrow seems to have coin- 



denscd, with equal spirit and judg- 

 ment, the results of his learned and 

 hit;hly meritorious researches. — 



''it may, perhaps, be laid down 

 as an invariable maxim, that the 

 condition of the female part of so- 

 ciety in any nation will furnish a 

 tolerable just criterion of the de- 

 gree of civilization to which that 

 nation has arrived. The manners, 

 habits, and prevailing sentiments of 

 women, have great influence on 

 those of society to which they be- 

 long, and generally give a turn to 

 its character. Thus M'e find that 

 those nations, where the moral and 

 intellectual powers of the mind,, in 

 the female sex, are held in most es^ 

 timation, will be governed by such 

 laws as are best calculated to pro- 

 mote the general happiness of the 

 people; and, on the contrary, where 

 the personal qualifications of the sex 

 are the only objects of consideration, 

 as is the case in all the despotic go- 

 vernments of the Asiatic nations, 

 tyranny, oppression, and slavery 

 are sure to prevail ; and these per- 

 sonal accomplishments, so far from 

 being of use to the owner, serve 

 only to deprive her of liberty, and 

 the society of hor friends ; to ren- 

 der her a degraded vi6tini subservi- 

 ent to the sensual gratification, the 

 caprice, and the jealousy of tyrant 

 man. Among savage tribes the la- 

 bour and drudgery invariably fall 

 heaviest on the weaker sex. 



" The talents of women, in our 

 own happy island, began only in 

 the reign of (jueen Elizabeth to be 

 held in a proper degree of consider- 

 ation. As women, they were ad- 

 mired and courted, hut they scarce- 

 ly could be said to participate iu 

 the society of men. In fu6t, the 

 manners of our forefathers, before 

 that reign, were too rough for them. 



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