ON THE CHINESE SYSTEM OF WRITING. 13 



From these facts, which the writer asserts of his own knowledge, and, there- 

 fore, which I am not disposed to controvert, he draws the following inference : 



" It is, therefore, certain that the nations who have adopted the Chinese cha~ 

 racter attach the same meaning to it as the natives from whence it originally 

 came, and that its construction is likewise retained, with scarcely any altera- 

 tions." 



Here I must acknowledge that I find myself embarrassed. Fortunately the 

 writer does not state this as a fact founded on his knowledge of those lano-uao-es 

 but as a mere inference. Were it otherwise, it would have embarrassed me 

 still more; for your learned friend would have been in contradiction, not only 

 with the grammars and other works that we possess concerning those idioms, 

 but also with learned and respectable missionaries, like himself, from whose 

 assertions I cannot withhold my assent. Thus, the Rev. Mr. Medhurst, in his 

 excellent work upon China, relates, (chapter 13th,) that am.ong a number of 

 books which he sent to Drs. Morrison and Milne, and either copied or caused 

 to be copied for them, there were the four books of Confucius, in Chinese, with 

 a Japanese translation interlined, a work, says he, of incalculaUe importance, as 

 showing that Chinese books, as they stand, are not intelligible to the mass of 

 the Japanese, and need some addition, in order to general circulation. And a 

 little farther he says : " It appears, from a comparison of these books, that the 

 Chinese books are not in general use in Japan, except when interlined rvitli Ja- 

 panese'' Thus, in Roman Catholic countries, the liturgical books are given 

 to the faithful in the Latin language, accompanied with a translation in the 

 vernacular tongue. 



And yet the same gentleman, in the fourth chapter of the same work, no 

 doubt written before he had seen the books above mentioned, and reflected 

 upon them, speaks of the Chinese characters precisely as your correspondent 

 does, and says that they are generally read and understood, not only through- 

 out the vast empire of China, but througliout Cochinchina, Corea, and Japan; 

 and that not only the characters, but the style, that is to say, the arrangement 

 of the ideas, is likewise understood; which implies that in all those languages 

 the structure, the metaphors, and the grammatical forms are the same, or nearly 

 the same, which appears to be the opinion of your learned correspondent. You 

 have seen how Mr. Medhurst after v/ards corrects himself, with respect to the 

 Japanese; and he seems to be astonished at his discovery, which, he says, is of 



VII. — D 



