CHINA. 105 



to impress on the eye the conceptions of the mind which have no 

 corporeal forms : though they do not combine these last marks into 

 words, like marks for sounds or letters : but a separate mark is made 

 to represent or stand for each idea ; and they use them as they do their 

 abridged picture characters, which were originally imitative or hiero- 

 glyphic. 



The Chinese books begin from the right hand ; their characters are 

 placed in perpendicular columns, of which there are generally ten in a 

 page. They are read downwards, beginning from the right hand side 

 of the paper ; sometimes a title is placed horizontally, and this like- 

 wise reads from the right hand. 



Antiquities. ...The most remarkable of the remains of antiquity in 

 the Chinese empire, the great wall separating China from Tartary, 

 to prevent the incursions of the Tartars, is supposed to extend from 

 twelve hundred to fifteen hundred miles. It is carried over mountains 

 and vallies ; and reaches from the province of Shensee to the Whang- 

 Hay or Yellow Sea. It is in most places built of brick and mortar, 

 which is so well tempered, that though it has stood more than two 

 thousand years, it is but little decayed. The beginning of this wall 

 is a large bulwark of stone raised in the sea, in the province of Pet- 

 chelee, to the east of Peking, and almost in the same latitude : it is 

 built like the walls of the capital city of the empire, but much wider, 

 being terraced and cased with bricks ; and is from twenty to twenty- 

 five feet high ; it is flanked with towers at the distance of almost 

 every hundred yards, which add to its strength, and render it much 

 easier to be defended. One third of the men capable of labour in. 

 China were, it is said, employed in constructing this wall, which was 

 begun and completely finished in the short space of five years; and 

 it is further reported, that the workmen stood so close for many miles, 

 that they could hand the materials from one to another. P. Regis, and 

 the other gentlemen who took a map of these provinces, often stretch- 

 ed a line on the top, to measure the bases of triangles, and to take dis- 

 tant points with an instrument. They always found it paved wide 

 enough for five or six horsemen to travel abreast with ease. 



The other antiquities found in this country, are coins of the ancient 

 monarchs, which are collected and arranged in cabinets by the curious 

 among the natives ; several pagodas or ornamented towers, erected 

 in commemoration of great events ; and numerous old temples, and 

 triumphal arches. 



History. ...The Chinese pretend, as a nation, to an antiquity beyond 

 all measure of credibility ; and their annals have been carried beyond 

 the period to which the scripture chronology assigns the creation of 

 the world. Poan Kou is said by them to have been the first man | 

 and the interval of time betwixt him and the death of their celebrated 

 Confucius, which was in the year before Christ 479, has been reck- 

 oned from 276,000 to 96,961,740 years. But, upon an accurate in- 

 vestigation of this subject* it appears, that all the Chinese historical 

 relations of events prior to the reign of the emperor Yao, who lived 

 2057 years before Christ, are entirely fabulous, composed in modern 

 times, unsuppoited by authentic records, and full of contradictions. It 

 appears also, that the origin of the Chinese empire cannot be placed 

 higher than two or three generations before Yao, Even this is car- 

 rying the empire of China to a very high antiquity ; but it is certain 

 that the materials for the Chinese history are extremely ample. The 

 fjrand annals of the empire of China are comprehended in six hundred 



VOT.. II, P 



