388 Notices respecting T^eiv Books. 



" In composing my Dictionary, I have taken care to report 

 under the principal word, ami to put in their true place, the ex- 

 planations, which in the dictionaries of" Father Basil and other 

 Missionaries are sometimes confounded with particular ways of 

 speaking or pronouncini:; ; so that those who translate think 

 that these explanations belong to the phrase which precedes ^ 

 whereas thev have no connection with it whiitever. For in- 

 stance, under the character Jang {3S2(>) we tind in the Dic- 

 tionary of Father Basil, fcmg-tcheoii, hiiice naves simul coji' 

 nexfp ; locus, ars, nu/di/s, regnln, &c. Now these last four 

 words do not belong to the phrase fantr-ictitou, but to the 

 character^owg'. It must not be concluded, however, from what 

 I have said, that the labours of the ;\iissionaries are defective; 

 the manner in which thev have tran^latecl, on the contrary, 

 proves that they have consulted the texts, and taken the Chinese 

 as their models: but the latter, after having given the explana- 

 tions, both of the isolated character and of the character con- 

 nected with another, have taken care, when they wished to in- 

 dicate some new acceptations, to trace a circle, in order to show 

 that the explanations which follow ought to be referred to the 

 principal character, and not to the preceding phrase. It is this 

 indication which the Missionaries have not given in a manner 

 sufficiently striking; which was necessary to remove every chance 

 of error. 



" I have placed at the end of tlie Dictionarv a table of the 

 numeric characters, which is essential to be knowii, if we wish 

 to speak correctly : I have afterwaids put down the characters , 

 which the Chinese join with the word ta ; and lastly, the cha- 

 racters which serve for counting. I have passed over the cha- 

 racters, the acceptations of which are completely opposite, be- 

 cause this addition, besides greatly swelling the volume, would 

 be useless, since each of these characters is arranged in its place 

 in the body of the Dictionary. 



'*' The extremelv limited time of three years, which was ori-, 

 ginally prescribed to me for the completion of the Dictionary, 

 having compelled nic to make the composition and printing go 

 on at the same time, I have been obliged to throw into a sup- 

 plement all the double characters which occurred when they 

 could no longer be })ut into the body of the Dictionary, th* 

 figures or tracings of which these same characters are composed 

 being fewer in (juantity than those of the principal character 

 which was printed at the moment of their occurring. 



" The table of proper names arranged according to the order 

 of the keys terminates the Dictionary. Those who wish to study 

 the Chinese language ought to read this table with attention ; 

 ii»r the proper uawes of the Chinese having nothing which di- 

 stinguishes" 



