Notices resptfcthig New Books. S89 



■stingiiishes them from otiier words, it is important to have a 

 perfect knowledge of them, in order to avoid bhmdera in trans- 

 lating. 



" I have verified all the characters and all the sounds : the 

 defective characters are few in mnuber ; the erroneous tones, at 

 least those wliich struck me on .running over the great iiuantity 

 of phrases which exist in the Dictionary, are more multiplied ; 

 and I mu^t refjuest the reader to cons\i!t the trrata*. 



" As to the characters, I em])loyed those wliich I found in the 

 possession of tlie Government f ; thev are correct. Some of 

 them, perhaps, mjght hate been better executed : but at the pe- 

 riod when these^charact.ers were cut in wood, i.e. between iflii 

 and 17-42, this kind of engraving had not reached the perfection 

 which it can now boast of: besides, these characters in wood 

 have not always remained in the same place, and they nmst ne- 

 cessarily have received some damage in the various removals 

 which they have undergone. 



" All the characters in the Dictionary are made in imitation 

 of the characters which the Chinese use in their printed dic- 

 tionaries, and not according to those which are to be found in 

 the MS. dictionaries of tlie Missionaries. The former are per- 

 pendicular and uncommonly clear, whereas the latter are fre- 

 quently inclined and sometimes incorrect. Now, as in the Chinese 

 dictionaries, a stroke more or less changes the signification of 

 the characters entirely, it may easilv be conceived that we could 

 not admit into a work like a dictionary, such as were not per- 

 fectly correct. 



" I have conformed myself, with respect to the pronuncia- 

 tion of the Chinese words, to that which is given bv the Tcking- 

 tse-tong. As to the orthography, I have preferred that of the 

 Spaniard-, Ijccause in the language of that nation all the letters 

 are pronounced. I have nevertheless simplified it, constantly 

 keeping in view that which was adopted by Father de Mailla, 

 and which is besides the most recent. 1 have suppressed the 

 letters f, o, ?/, employed by the ?vIissionaries, because these letters 

 are usually pronounced like /, o, and u, in tlie French. In some 

 provinces of China, they pronounce o like on : but this is not 

 general; and I have not thought myself called upon in a classical 

 work to express certain particular inflexions. Besides, tlie sup- 

 pression of those three letters surmounted by a point rendered 

 the printing much easier : an important object, since it had al- 



* Tlie EiTiita coiituiiis the rectifications of some ern>rs of cypliers in the 

 references; tliuse errors I coulil not avoi,l, for tlicse reftxcnces wer* 

 printed luo'^ boforc tlie chararter to wliich they boloiiicd. 



I The^e characters wcrcfni;rave'l umkr the iii^in etion of M. rourniont, 

 from tha C'lmicac Dictionaries l\lii/ii:-f.ie-ti'iig ami Tsc-ottf. 



B b a ready 



