384 Notices respecting Neiv Books. 



mean to confine our present article to a mere announcement of 

 the work. The task of examining it as critics must devolve 

 upon philologists more skilled than we are in the languages of 

 the East. 



The work is ushered intt) the world with a succinct detail of 

 the origin and progress of the enterprise, and a sketch of the 

 objects which its learned and indefatigable author sought to at- 

 tain by its completion. This is followed by a preface, distin- 

 guished for profound erudition and historical research, in which 

 the history of the Chinese language is traced with the pen of 

 a scholar of no common clas'^ical attainments. It is our inten- 

 tion to present the readers of the Philosophical Magazine with 

 a faithful translation of this interesting article in a future num- 

 ber : in the mean time we bring under their notice the curious 

 and interesting account with which M. de Guignes has furnished 

 us of the nature of the enterprise. 



" In 1801," he informs us, "when I arrived from the capital 

 of the Chinese empire, and, after seventeen years absence, re- 

 visited my native country, the Government zealous of the honour 

 of publishing a Chinese Dictionary, invited a foreigner from 

 London on purpose, who, after remaining in Paris four years, 

 took leave without even commencing it. In 1808, a foreigner 

 was again proposed to M. Creffet; but this minister, truly at- 

 tached to his n;itive country, would not employ him : he was of 

 opinion that a Frenchman alone ought to bring to light a work, 

 for which the state had already provided the characters at the 

 puljlic expense. I was so fortunate as to receive the order for 

 printing it, and accordingly obtained from the Royal Library 

 the MS. Chinese and Latin Dictionary of Father Basil *, brought 

 from the Propaganda to Paris, which was given me as a model; 

 and I began the composition of the new Dictionary, which 1 was 

 obliged to finish according to the orders of the Minister, in three 

 years. 



■" Chinese Avriting is composed of six elementary traces or 

 strokes, which added to 208 primitive characters form two hun- 

 dred and fourteen kevs, under v.'hich all the characters are 

 classed. The Dictionaries pul)lished»l)y the Chinese themselves 

 are com])osed according to this system, i. e. all the characters 

 are placed according to the order of the keys, commencing with 

 the key of one single trace, and finishing with that of seventeen 

 traces, which is the last. Father Basil had also arranged his 



* M. Lan2zeal!es,\vliose and kind dispositions are well known, intrusteii 

 to my care, besides, a Latin and Chinese Dictionary, and a Portnguese and 

 Latin Dictionary, drawn up by the Missionaries ia addition to the Chinese 

 and Latin Dictionary of IVl. Tounncnt. 



Chinese 



