﻿I96 ON THE SECOND CLASSICAL 



celestia 1 : but as things merely intellectual could 

 not be expressed by rho«e figures, the grammarians 

 of China contrived to represent the various opera- 

 tions of the mind by metaphors drawn from the 

 productions of nature :" thus the idea of roughness 

 and of rotundity, of motion and rest, were con- 

 veyed to the eye by signs representing a mountain, 

 the sky, a river and the eaith ; the figures of the 

 sun, the moon, and the stars, differently combined, 

 stood for smoothness and splendour, for any thing 

 aitfully wrought, or woven with delicate workman- 

 ship ; extension, growth, increase, and many other 

 qualities, were painted in characters taken from 

 clouds, from the firmament, and from tne vege- 

 table part of the creation; the different ways of 

 moving, agility and slowness, idleness and dili- 

 gence, were expressed by various insects, birds, 

 fish, and quadrupeds. In this manner passions 

 and sentiments were traced by the pencil, and ideas 

 not subject to any sense were exhibited to the sight, 

 un^il by degrees new combinations were invented, 

 new expressions added ; the characters deviated 

 imperceptibly from their primitive shape, and the 

 Chirefe language became not only clear and forci- 

 : ble, but rich and tlegant in the highest degree/ 



In this language, so ancient and so wonderfully 

 composed, are a multitude of books abounding in 

 useful, as well as agreeable, knowledge; but the 

 highest class consists of Five works ; one of which, 

 at least, every Chinese who aspires to literary honours, 

 must read again and again, until he possess it per- 

 fectly. 



The first is purely Historical, containing annals of 

 the empire from the two-thousand three-hundred thirty- 

 Jeventh year before Christ : it is entitled Shuking, 

 and a version of it has been published in France ; to 



