CHINESE WRITINGS. 309 



it were not testified by men worthy of credite, as the fathers LlB - &quot; 

 of our company who are there continually, learning their 

 language and writing, wherein they have studied day and 

 night above tenne ycares, with a continuall labour for the 

 charitie of Christ and the desire of salvation of soules, pre 

 vailed in them above all this labour and difficultie. For 

 this reason, learned men are so much esteemed in China, for 

 the difficultio there is to conceive them : and those only 

 have the offices of Mandarins, Governours, Judges, and 

 Captaines. For this cause the fathers take great pains to 

 instruct their children to reade and write. There are many 

 of these schooles where the children are taught, where the 

 masters teach them by day, and the fathers at home by 

 night : so as they hurt their eyes much, and they whippo 

 them often with reedes, although not so severely as they doe 

 offenders. They call it the Mandarin tongue, which requires 

 a mans ago to be conceived. And you must understand 

 that, although the tongue which the Mandarins speake bee 

 peculiar and different from the Vulgar, which are many, 

 and that they studio it, as they doo Latino and Greeke 

 heere, and that the learned only throghout all China do 

 vnderstand it : so it is notwithstanding that all that is 

 written in it, is vnderstood in all tongues : and although all 

 the Provinces doo not vnderstand one another by speaking, 

 yet by writing they doe : for there is but one sort of figures 

 and characters for them all, which signifie one thing, but 

 not the same word and prolation : seeing (as I have said) 

 they are onely to denote the things and not the worde, as 

 we may easily vnderstand by the examples of numbers in 

 ciphering. And they of lappon and the Chinois do reado 

 and vnderstand well the writings one of another, although 

 they be divers Nations and different in tongue and lan 

 guage. If they speake what they reade or write, they 

 should not bee vnderstood. Such are the letters and bookes 

 the Chinois vse, being so famous in the world. To make 



