TOL. XVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 285 



going abroad, he cannot avoid being attacked by several distempers, which he 

 prevents by means of these long progresses. For during the whole journey he 

 never sees any woman ; and what is more surprising, there appears not any one 

 in all this great army, except those which are of the retinue of the queen 

 mother ; and it is only once before that she has accompanied the king, when he 

 took with him the three queens as far as the capital city of the province of 

 Leao-tum, to visit the sepulchres of their ancestors. Another reason for this 

 journey, was to avoid the excessive heats of Pekin in the summer. For in this 

 part of Tartary there reigns, during the months of July and August, so cold a 

 wind, especially in the night, that it is necessary to put on thick clothes and 

 furs. And this extraordinary cold may be owing to the great height and moun- 

 tainous nature of the country, and to the saltpetre in which it abounds ; the cold 

 here being so intense, as to penetrate 3 or 4 feet depth in the earth. 



As to what relates to the particularities of our journey, they are similar to 

 those which happened to us the last year, in the journey to the Eastern Tartary, 

 described in my last letter, our treatment being just the same. For more than 

 600 miles, which we had travelled in going and returning, for we did not return 

 by the same road, the emperor caused to be made a great highway, across the 

 mountains and valleys for the queen mother, who rode in a chariot ; he caused 

 also an infinite number of bridges to be built over torrents, and rocks to be cut 

 through, with incredible labour and expense. 



Some Observations and Conjectures concerning the Chinese Characters. Made by 



R.H* R.S.S. N° 180, p. 63. 



Whether there ever was any natural language, I do not dispute ; but that there 

 have been, still are, and may be more artificial languages invented, is not diffi- 

 cult to prove. The Chinese court language is said to be of this kind, invented 

 and spoken by the literati and Mandarins throughout the whole empire of China, 

 and differing from all the other languages spoken in it. This I conjecture to 

 be no other than the names of the characters by which they write and express 

 their meaning, arbitrarily imposed by them, as we in Europe give names to 

 arithmetical figures, and not as we pronounce words written with a literal cha- 

 racter. This I judge, by comparing the characters with the names, monosyl- 

 lables, or words, they pronounce and read them by. Nor do they ascend above 

 a monosyllabical name, though the character be composed of many single cha- 

 racters, each of which has its proper sense and monosyllabical name, and though 



* Probably Dr. Robert Hook. 



