SOME THOUGHTS ON THE FORMATION OF A 

 CHINESE DICTIONARY, AND ON THE BEST 

 MODE OF PRINTING CHINESE. IN A LETTER 

 TO THE REV. J. POWER, M.A., FELLOW OF 

 CLARE HALL, AND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN*. 



Cantantes licet usque minus via Isedit eamus. 



MY DEAR SIR, 



THE study of Chinese is hindered by many difficulties, 

 the nature of which is not generally understood. The expense 

 of printing Chinese with our kind of types is one of them. 

 Much has been done in this matter by Breitkopf, of Leipsic, 

 who has been employed by the American mission. 



Some of the results were exhibited at the Crystal Palace, 

 but I have not been able to learn anything of the details of 

 the analysis to which he subjects the Chinese characters. More 

 recently Professor Brockhaus has proposed, that in order to get 

 a complete and inexpensive Chinese dictionary, we should have 

 recourse to Lithography. Even so the undertaking would be a 

 great one, and it is very desirable that such a dictionary should 

 be arranged in the most convenient and useful manner. 



Brockhaus proposes to follow the ordinary Chinese arrange- 

 ment ; according to which the characters are distributed under 

 214 radicals, remarking in favour of doing so, that it is conve- 

 nient to be in accordance with the Chinese practice f. 



No doubt this is true; but the objections to this mode of 

 proceeding are considerable. 



In the first place, it is essentially unscientific ; the radicals 

 are chosen on no definite principle. They seem to be, as Kant 

 somewhat too boldly asserted of Aristotle's categories, aufgerafft, 

 gathered up at random from all sorts of sources. 



In the second place, the relation of the characters to the 

 radicals under which they stand, is arbitrary and uncertain. 

 In some cases the relation is one of mere resemblance, in others 



* Previously printed for private circulation. 



t The system of 214 radicals is not of high antiquity, and has not been always 

 followed since its first introduction. 



