820 On the Study of the Chinese Language. [No. 141. 



four acts.* M. Theodore Pavie, who had studied Sanscrit and Chinese 

 at the same time, acquired in a few years a remarkable knowledge of 

 these two languages, and to him we owe a volume of Chinese Novels, 

 not less distinguished by the elegance of their style, than by the fidelity 

 of the translation ; and M. Biot, junior, whose early studies and 

 a solid knowledge of the Chinese language, have enabled him to 

 examine, with much advantage to science, books written in the 

 ancient dialect, and relative to the history, geography, statistics, or arts 

 of China. The readers of the Journal Asiatique have often had occa- 

 sion to appreciate the Memoirs with which he has enriched its pages. 

 He is now preparing for the press the Alphabetic Concordance of the 

 names of Chinese towns of the first, second, and third rank, which 

 have been changed under different dynasties. This will reflect new 

 honour on the author, and new light upon our knowledge. I might add 

 to these names, those of M. Leon Pages, Advocate, who has just con- 

 cluded a French translation of the four classic books (Kings) with a 

 running commentary, and of his cousin, M. Edme* Mechain, (grandson 

 of the astronomer,) lost to science by an early death when Vice-Consul 

 at Smyrna. M. Mechain had learnt Chinese when a law student, and 

 only at his leisure hours, and yet in three years he was able to read with 

 facility. Son of a Consul General, and pursuing that profession, he 

 hoped to become one day French Consul in China, and that his know- 

 ledge of the languages of the celestial empire might be of use to our 

 commerce, our arts, and our literature. His name as a Chinese scholar 

 would be still unknown, were it not that I have felt it a duty to men- 

 tion here his zeal and his remarkable acquirements in Chinese. 



It is thus a well established fact, both from the examples which 

 I have quoted, and from a sort of public notoriety, that in a few 

 years a tolerable knowledge of Chinese may be acquired. But there 

 is one indispensable condition^ which is to study with care the laws of 

 construction, the fixed principles which determine the grammatical 

 functions of the words and modify their value according to the place 

 in which they stand in the sentence ; the value of the prepositions 

 which are sometimes significative as in other languages, and sometimes 

 lose their usual meanings, becoming purely phonetic marks of regimen, 



*This Drama, entitled " Pi-Pa-ki, or the History of the Lute," was published in 1841, by 

 Dupont, 



