Extracts from Barrow's Travels in China. 



Little can be said of their art in poetry, either ancient 

 or modern, the language being obscured so much by meta- 

 phor, as to speak rather to the eye than the ear. Of their 

 music I have little to observe, it does not seem to be culti- 

 vated by them as a science, nor is it much cultivated by 

 females of high life, except by those who are educated for 

 sale, or hired out for the entertainment of others : the women 

 generally perform on the pipe or flute, the gentlemen on 

 guitars of two, four, or seven strings : they seem in their 

 chorusses, to delight in the intenseness of the noise, and for 

 this purpose the gong is admirably adapted : they have a 

 kind of clarionet, and their kettle drums are shaped gene- 

 rally like barrels. The Chinese are quite unacquainted 

 with the counter point, although they sometimes take an 

 octave, and indeed it is not to be wondered at, as the elegant 

 Greeks were unacquainted with it, and it was unused, even 

 in Europe, till the monkish ages. 



With regard to painting, they must be considered in 

 two different respects. In history, as miserable daubers, 

 unable or unwilling to execute any thing well. 



In drawings of natural objects, such as flowers, birds, 

 and insects they imitate with a great degree of exactness 

 and brilliancy of colour, whatever is presented to their 

 view. In landscapes they finish their pictures with great 

 minuteness, but are deficient in those strong lights and 

 masses of shade which give force and effect to the imitation. 

 In the perspective delineation of buildings, there are many 

 oversights in the arrangements of the outlines. The spe- 

 cimens of beautiful flowers, birds, and insects, brought over 

 to Europe, are the work of artists at Canton, where from 

 being in the habit of copying prints and drawings, carried 

 thither for the purpose of being transferred to porcelain, or 

 as articles of commerce, they have acquired a better taste 



