16 Mr. Du Ponceau on some Points comiected 



when we last met at Dr. Gibson's, had left an impression on 

 your mind ; as I had no expectation, amidst the many objects 

 with which you wei-e surrounded in your peregrinations 

 through this countrj^, of leaving even a trace in your remem- 

 brance. It is theretore with great pleasure that I comply with 

 your request in giving some further development to the ideas 

 which 1 then threw out to you, and which derive all their 

 value from your having thought them worthy to be kept in 

 mind. 



Having for many years devoted my leisure moments to the 

 study of the philosophy of language, the Chinese idiom and 

 its peculiar system of writing could not escape my attention. 

 I was at first astonished at the wonders which are ascribed to 

 this mode of ocular communication, which appeared to me to 

 be greatly exaggerated, and I determined to pursue the sub- 

 ject as far as my means would permit me. The result of my 

 investigations does by no means agree with the opinion that 

 is generally entertained. I do not pretend to know the Chi- 

 nese language; therefore those who have learned and conse- 

 quently can read and understand it, have a great advantage 

 over me in a discussion in which I attempt to controvert even 

 the opinions of profound sinologists. I have, however, studied 

 the elementary and other works which treat of that idiom, in 

 order to acquaint myself with the curious structure of that 

 language and the principles of its graphic system, and have 

 possessed rriyself of a sufficient number of facts to enable me 

 to form logical conclusions. This is all that can be expected 

 of a general philologist; if it were otherwise, that science must 

 be entirely abandoned, as it is impossible for any one man to 

 know more than a very few of the unnumbered and perhaps in- 

 numerable languages that exist on the surface of the earth. 



The general opinion which prevails, even among those who 

 are the most proficient in the Chinese idiom, is that the system 

 or mode of writing which is in use in that country, and which 

 they call the written in opposition to the spoken language, is 

 an ocular method of communicating ideas, entirely independent 

 of speech, and which, without the intervention of words, con- 

 veys ideas through the sense of vision, directly to the mind. 

 Hence it is called ideographic^ in contradiction to the phono- 

 graphic or alphabetical system of writing. This is the idea 

 which is entertained of it in China, and may justly be ascribed 

 to the vanity of the Chinese literati. The Catholic at first, 

 and afterwards, the Protestant missionaries, have I'eceived it 

 from them without much examination ; and the love of wonder, 

 natural to our species, has not a little contributed to propa- 

 gate that opinion, which has at last taken such possession of 



the 



