﻿ON THE CHINESE. 379 



ritual, while the Chinese very soon lost both ; and the 

 Hindus have constantly intermarried among them- 

 selves, while the Chinese, by a mixture of Tartarian 

 blood from the time of their first establishment, have 

 at length formed a race distinct in appearance both 

 from Indians and Tartars. 



A similar diversity has arisen, I believe, from si- 

 milar causes, between the people of China and Japan ; 

 on the second of which nations we have now, or soon 

 shall have, as correct and as ample instruction as can 

 possiblv be obtained without a perfect acquaintance 

 with the Chinese characters. Kcempfer has taken from 

 M. Ttts'm&h the honour of bein^ the first : and he 

 from Kcempfer that of being the only European who, 

 by a long residence in Japan, and a familiar inter- 

 course with the principal natives of it, has been able 

 to collect authentic materials for the natural and civil 

 history of a country secluded (as the Romans' used to 

 say of our own ishnd)fro?u the rest of the world. The 

 works of those illustrious travellers will confirm and 

 embellish each other ; and when M. Titsingh shall 

 have acquired a knowledge of Chinese, to which a 

 part of his leisure in Java will be devoted, his pre- 

 cious collection of books in that language, on the 

 laws and revolutions, the natural productions, the 

 arts, manufactures, and sciences of Japan, will be in 

 his hands an inexhaustible mine of new and important 

 information. Both he and his predecessor assert with 

 confidence, and, I doubt not, with truth, that the 

 Japanese would resent, as an insult on their dignity, 

 the bare suggestion of their descent from the Chinese, 

 whom they surpass in several of the mechanical arts, 

 and, what is of greater consequence, in military spirit; 

 but they do not, I understand, mean to deny that 

 they are a branch of the same ancient stem with the 

 people of China ; and, were that fact ever so warmly 

 contested by them, it might be proved by an invinci- 



