ACADEMY OF SCIENCEs. LOS 
We cannot avoid admitting that the Chinese are one of the oldest families 
of the ancient world; yet they are by no means the oldest. Until the seventh 
century before the Christian era, they were perfect strangers to every form of 
idolatry. Pure Chinese appear like a race absolutely distinct from nations 
by whom they are surrounded, differing in physical characteristics of form, 
color, and expression; in language, in their written characters, their litera- 
ture, and religious observances. Unchanged by foreign conquests, by exten- 
Sive intermixture with any foreign race, they have developed within them- 
selves, preserving and perbaps intensifying their type; governed and civilized 
by the principles contained in their own classic literature, and in their pure 
and excellent book, the Chou-king, compiled fully 3,000 years ago, from their 
more ancient literature, much as many suppose Moses to have compiled the 
Pentateuch, or as Heroditus compiled early Grecian history. 
China has her ancient picture writings, but no ancient idols. She has her 
literature older than the Sanscrit races. When the great pyramid of Menes 
was built, in the fourth dynasty of Egypt, B. C. 3893, we find one vast 
and expanded system of idolatry throughout Asia, and the countries border- 
ing on the Mediterranean, all worshiping emblems, more or less types of the 
sun or solar principle, China standing alone—far back in the twilight of his- 
tory—is a solitary exception on the continent of Asia. 
Language is a test of social contact, not of race. Undoubtedly the first 
expression of human thoughts were by configurations of countenance, such 
as smiles and scowls, indicating pleasure, dread, or anger. With the inyen- 
tion of complicated forms in language, capable of complete expression with- 
out emotion, came deceit, frequently followed by loss of harmonious social . 
relations, and developing combativeness. No primitive history, at present 
known, conveys any reliable account of an aboriginal language much ante- 
rior to that of China; although that of the ancient people of Yucatan and 
adjoining American nations, as shown by picture-writings on their monu- 
ments, appears to have been more ancient. 
Both peoples, in common with the Egyptians, expressed thoughts by pic- 
ture-writing and in hieroglyphics. While other surviving nations improved 
upon this original style, by developing the phonetic; inhabitants of China 
alone, became exclusively confirmed in their monosyllabic language, and their 
manner of vocal communication, is still very peculiar and spasmodic 
in sound and utterance. Their hieroglyphics, which, in early ages, expressed 
a single substantial thought, were subsequently assumed as syllabic repre- 
sentations, and became synthetic or compound forms of expression. Thus, 
to-day, 216 Chinese radicals are made use of, in over 50,000 ideographic com- 
binations. 
To investigate this subject, requires extensive research in a multitude of 
directions—physiological, linguistic, religious, traditional. geographical, and 
migratorial—for it is often by their mutual comparison only, that satisfactory 
results are reached. ‘The wider view we can compass, the clearer our under- 
standing of general laws. There is in force a law of decreasing vitality, as 
well as of evolution, both alike depending upon the refinement of surround- 
ing conditions. Great disturbances have aftected the earth’s surface and all 
living things, since the tertiary period, when our present zodlogy fairly started 
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