IMITATIVE AND SYMBOLICAL. 



277 



slons of these may probably be succeeded by a like fall in those of various 

 others.* 



Even China, at the time of Moses, according to the statement of their own 

 writers, had not long emerged from a state of the grossest barbarism. It is 

 admitted in the Lee K'hee, that, during the reigns of Yaou and Shun, or about 

 two thousand years before Christ, the people, as we have just observed, were 

 living in a savage state, in woods and caves, and holes dug in the ground ; 

 covering themselves with the skins of beasts, and rude garments formed of 

 the leaves of trees, grass, reeds, and feathers. Even one thousand years 

 later, or during the dynasty Chow, their states or clans amounted to not less 

 than eighteen hundred, each of which had its chieftain, who possessed abso- 

 lute and hereditary power ; though all united in acknowledging the supremacy 

 of this family and conceding to it the imperial dignity. It was only about 

 two hundred years before our own era that these clans were reduced to 

 seven ; and some time afterward that Che-hwang-he, the first emperor of the 

 dynasty T'sin, succeeded in amalgamating the whole into one vast and massy 

 despotism, the great outlines of which continue to the present day.f Yet, as 

 far down as nine hundred and eighteen years before Christ, or about five 

 hundred years before the era of Confucius, notwithstanding their symbolical 

 characters and sacred books, in use among the learned, Dr. Milne afllrms, 

 from their own historians, that generally speaking they were barbarians in 

 literature as well as in manners, and could " neither read, nor write, nor 

 cipher."! And I may here add, that whatever were their writings, and by 

 whomsoever written, in earlier ages, the Chinese have, at this day, none of *a 

 higher date than those composed by Confucius himself, five hundred years 

 before our own era, or compiled by him from rude and imperfect copies of 

 more ancient productions, for the most part indented on plates or pieces of 

 wood rather than transcribed on paper. 



Upon the whole, however, the conclusion I have ventured to advance seems 

 to be strengthened by the general tenor of the inquiry into this subject, and 

 affords us additional ground for believing that the art of writing, even by the 

 use of alphabetic characters, instead of having been communicated to Moses 

 by some special interposition of the Deity, was, in his day, as familiar to his 

 countrymen as to himself ; that it was generally known throughout Egypt, 

 and, perhaps, cultivated over various parts of Asia. 



Contemplating written language, therefore, as of human invention, let us 

 next inquire into the most probable means by which it was invented and 

 brought to perfection ; and the countries in which it originated. 



dentj" says Mr. Bentley, " that none of the modern romances commonly called the Puranas, at least in 

 the form in which they now stand, are older than 484; and that some of them are compilations of still 

 later times." — Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. p. 240. And to nearly as late a date are they assigned by Mr. 

 Wiiford: "They are certainly," says he, "a modem compilation from valuable materials, that, I am 

 afraid, no longer exist. An astronomical observation of the heliacal rising of Canopus mentioned in two 

 of tne Puranas puts this beyond doubt."— lb. vol. p. 244. Mr. Coleman is of this same opinion ; at least 

 in respect to one of them, the Sri Bhagaveta: which, he farther tells us, is considered even by many of 

 thelearmjd Hindoos as the work of a grammarian supposed to have lived about 600 years ago.— lb. vol. viii, 

 p. 487. 



* There is a doubt which has the best claim to the highest antiquity, the rehgion of Boodh or that of 

 Brahma. One of the most authentic accounts we have of the former is that transmitted to the American 

 Board of Missions by Mr. Judson, a man of great excellence and intelligence, who has resided in the 

 Buriiian empire as a missionary, at Rangoon or at Ava, from 1814, to, I believe, the present time; to 

 which I shall also have occasion to advert hereafter. Mr. Judson is intimately acquainted with the lan- 

 guage, the customs, and established creed of the Burman empire; and, according to his account, the 

 priests of Boodhism, though they claim for themselves a higher origin than those of Brahma, make no 

 pretence to an extravagant antiquity. "Boodh," says Mr. Judson, "whose proper name is Gaudama, 

 appeared in Hmdostan about two thousand three hundrbd years ago, and gave a new form and 

 dress to the old transmigration system, which, in some shape or other, has existed from time immemorial. 

 The Brahmans, m the mean time, dressed up the system after their fashion; and both these modifications 

 struggled for the ascendency. At length the family of Gaudama, which had held the sovereignty of India, 

 was dethroned, his religion was denounced, and hisdisciples look refuge in Ceylon, and the neighbouring 

 countries. In that island, about 500 years after the decease and supposed annihilatfon of their 

 TEACHER OR DKiTY, they Composed their sacred writings in the Sanscrit, which had obtained in Ceylon; 

 whence they were conveyed by sea to the Indo Chinese nations (those of the Burman empire). Boodh- 

 ism, however, had gained a footing in Burinah before the arrival of the sacred books from Ceylon. It is 

 commonly maintained that it was introduced by his emissaries before his death."— Correspondence, 1819. 



t Part IV. sec. 9. See Milne's Retrospect of the First Ten Years of the Protestant Mi.ssion to Cliina. 

 Malacca Press, 8vo. 1820, p. 18. % Kwoli-tseli. Pref. p. 1. Milne, ut supr. p. 20. 



