MORRISON. 



675 



as a preceptor, of a young Chinese, named Yong- 

 Sam Tae, by whose assistance, and with the prac- 

 tice he acquired in forming the Chinese character 

 by transcribing a Chinese MS. of the four Gospels 

 in the British Museum, and another the property 

 of the royal society, be made considerable progress 

 in qualifying himself for his undertaking. On the 

 8th of January, 1807, he was formally set apart, 

 or ordained, according to the practice of the church 

 of Scotland, in the Scottish church in Swallow 

 Street, to the work of a Christian missionary 

 among the Chinese ; and on the 31st he embarked 

 for China, via America, and landed at Macao on 

 the 4th of September, 1807. On his arrival at 

 that place, he continued to prosecute the study of 

 the Chinese language. In 1808, he was appointed 

 translator to the East India Company's factory at 

 Canton, and about the close of the year he in- 

 formed the Missionary Society that he had com- 

 pleted a grammar of the Chinese language ; that 

 his dictionary of the same language was daily filling 

 up, and that his MS. of the New Testament was 

 in part fit to be printed. In 1813, he completed 

 an edition in Chinese of the whole of the New 

 Testament, of which he forwarded a few copies to 

 Europe as presents to his friends. Large impres- 

 sions of this Testament have since been printed : 

 they bear date in the years 1815, 1819, 1822, and 

 1827, and were extensively circulated in China. 

 He at the same time wrote and printed a Cate- 

 chism in Chinese, with a tract on the Doctrines 

 of Christianity, of which 15,000 copies were 

 printed and circulated. In 1815, he commenced 

 the publication of his Dictionary of the Chinese 

 Language. This work was printed at a press 

 established expressly for that purpose at Macao. 

 It consists of three parts : the first part contain- 

 ing the Chinese and English, arranged according 

 to the radicals, fills three quarto volumes of about 

 900 pages each, bearing date 1815, 1822, and 

 1823. It was by this systematical arrangement of 

 the elements of the Chinese language that Morri- 

 son surmounted a difficulty, which had till then 

 been found insuperable by Europeans, in their en- 

 deavours to understand the speech and writings of 

 the natives of this immense empire. The second 

 part, which fills two volumes, published in the 

 years 1819 and 1820, contains the Chinese and 

 English arranged alphabetically ; the third part, 

 published in the year 1822, consists of English 

 words with Chinese meanings. The Dictionary 

 was completed on the 15th of April, 1822. The 

 cost, which amounted to 15,000, was defrayed 

 by the East India Company. After he had com- 

 pleted his translation of the New Testament, in 

 1813, he obtained the co-operation of the Rev. Mi- 

 Milne, who had been sent to Malacca by the 

 London Missionary Society, in charge of their 

 missionary establishment at that place. With Mr 

 Milne, whose life fell a sacrifice to the climate in 

 the year 1822, Dr Morrison maintained a constant 

 and cordial friendship, and with his assistance he 

 completed a Chinese version of the books of the 

 Old Testament on the 25th of November, 1819. 

 The portion of this work which was translated by 

 Dr Milne consists of the book of Deuteronomy, 

 and later historical books, and the book of Job. 

 The translation and publication of the whole of 

 the Old and New Testaments, in nineteen vol- 

 umes octavo, was completed in the year 1819. 

 Leang-a-fa, a native Chinese, who had been con 

 verted to the Christian faith by Dr Milne, assisted 



in passing the work through the press. Other 

 editions of this work have been printed since the 

 year 1819, at the expense of the British and For- 

 eign Bible Society ; and Dr Morrison meditated, 

 and, indeed, had undertaken, previous to his 

 decease, a new and revised edition of the Sacred 

 Scriptures in Chinese, under the patronage of the 

 Bible Society. In 1817, he published a ' View of 

 China for Philological Purposes," in one volume 

 quarto, containing a sketch of Chinese chrono- 

 logy, geography, government, religion, and customs, 

 designed for the use of persons who study the 

 Chinese language. This volume contains an out- 

 line of the Chinese dynasties, with many historical 

 facts, of which more recent writers on China have 

 not failed abundantly to avail themselves. In the 

 same year, his extensive acquaintance with the 

 language and literature of China recommended him 

 as the fittest person to accompany lord Amherst 

 on his embassy to Pekin. Dr Morrison, accord- 

 ingly, accompanied his lordship as his Chinese in- 

 terpreter; and wrote a memoir of the embassy, 

 which was afterwards published in this country. 

 On the 24th of December, 1817, the Senatus 

 Academicus of the university of Glasgow unani- 

 mously conferred upon him the degree of doctor 

 of divinity, in token of their approbation of his 

 philological labours. In 1818, he executed a pro- 

 ject, which he had long had in contemplation the 

 establishment of an Anglo-Chinese college at Mal- 

 acca, in which the languages and literature of the 

 two countries should be interchangeably com- 

 municated, chiefly with a view to the final object 

 of his mission, the introduction of the Christian 

 religion into China. Towards the foundation of 

 this college he gave 1000 with an endowment of 

 100 per annum for five years; and obtained the 

 further requisite pecuniary aid from his friends in 

 Europe and Asia. He made other pecuniary 

 grants towards the support of this institution, and 

 was, till his death, its most powerful and efficient 

 patron. 



In 1824, he returned to Europe, and was re- 

 ceived with marked attention in the several reli- 

 gious, literary, and scientific circles in England and 

 Scotland, in which he made his appearance; and 

 not less so in the French metropolis, where he 

 spent part of the summer of 1825. He had also 

 the honour, during his residence in England, to be 

 enrolled a member of the royal society ; and was 

 presented, as one of the most eminent Chinese 

 scholars of the age, by the president of the Board of 

 Control, to the King at his levee, to whom be 

 submitted a complete copy of the Sacred Scrip, 

 tures in the Chinese language, together with some 

 other productions of the Chinese press. He 

 brought with him to England his Chinese library, 

 consisting of several thousand volumes in every 

 department of Chinese literature. During his 

 residence in England, he published a thin quarto 

 volume entitled the " Chinese Miscellany," con- 

 sisting of original extracts from Chinese authors, 

 in the native character; with translations and 

 philological remarks. In the publication of this 

 work, be had recourse to lithography, an art 

 which he subsequently described as peculiarly well 

 adapted to the multiplication of copies of pages 

 written in the Chinese character, and which for 

 that reason he has introduced into China. In 

 1826 he returned to China, under the auspices of 

 the court of directors of the East India Company. 

 On the arrival of lord Napier at Macao, with Ins 

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