IMITATIVE AND SYMBOLICAL. 



285 



we should probably still find them derived in the same manner from forms or 

 symbols of things, aiid that they were at first direct imitations or conven- 

 tional representatives ; still, as I have already shown, miited and compounded, 

 or in some other way modified to express abstract or complicated ideas. It 

 must be obvious, however, that characters thus constituted must be very 

 loose and perplexing ; and such, in fact, they are often found to be, by the 

 most expert and best instructed natives. It must be obvious, at the same time, 

 that a system of picture-writing, thus constructed and perfected, may, in a 

 considerable degree, answer the purpose of alphabetic marks;* and it is doubt- 

 less owing alone to the perfection which this system of writing had acquired 

 in Mexico, and still exhibits in China, that the ingenious people of both 

 countries stopped so long at the point of abbreviated emblems, significant of 

 objects, and never fairly advanced from a legible language for things, to a 

 legible language for words. 



It should be observed, however, as a farther proof of the tendency of pic- 

 ture-characters to advance towards literal, that even in China itself the 

 Mantcheu, or Tartars, have an alphabet, or system of verbal writing, and that 

 the Mantcheu practice has long been acquiring a growing reputation. It should 

 be observed, also, that the Chinese characters themselves have of late been 

 resorted to at Canton, and by Chinese natives, as merely expressive of sounds, 

 and been employed in the formation of an English vocabulary ; inconse- 

 quence, as Sir George Staunton remarks, of the great concourse of persons resid- 

 ing at this station who use the English language.! In like manner, the Japanese, 

 fond as they are of copying from the Chinese, have long since departed from 

 their system of marks for things, and addicted themselves to alphabetic 

 characters ; sometimes writing them horizontally, and sometimes perpendi- 



* Among the numerous and important library establishments of the present da}', one has lately been 

 opened by the r.o-operation of a committee of enlightened and public-spirited individuals, for a regular course 

 of instruction by lectures in many of the most extensively spoken languages of the East, and among the 

 rest in Chinese. The President is Lord Bexley ; among the Vice-Presidents are Sir George Staunton, 

 Bart., and Sir T. S. Raffles ; its situation is in Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn ; and while instruction in these 

 valuable branches of literature is hereby offered to every one, it is gratuitously bestowed on all Christian 

 missionaries who are desirous of taking advantage of its benefits. It is, hence, emphatically denominated, 

 a " Lancutage Institution in Aid of the Propagation of Christianity," and few establishments 

 of the present day are more entitled to the support of the nation, or of the world. 



It should be farther stated, moreover, in order to excite the fullest confidence of the public, that the Pro- 

 fessor in the Chinese department is the Rev. Dr. Morrison ; while those in the Arabic, Persian, Bengalee, 

 and Sanscrit are nearly of equal celebrity, and have the occasional assistance of Professor Lee, of Cam- 

 bridge ; and that all of them have entered into the undertaking with so much zeal and public spirit as to 

 afford their valuable assistance gratuitously. 



Nor has this instruction been offered in vain or unsuccessfully. Even in the Chinese department, where 

 many might expect least to be accomplished, the very learned and excellent Professor, in his first Quarterly 

 Report to the Committee, March ], 1826, has stated, that he has been attended by thirteen students, seniors 

 and juniors, besides several ladies ; with the progress of most of whom he has had great reason to be satisfied : 

 and two or three of whom, having attained some previous knowledge of the language, are preparing tocarry 

 on the design after his own return to China. 



The Institution is also under a deep and inexpressible obligation to Dr. Morrison, for the gratuitous use of his 

 most valuable Chinese library,— by far the first in Europe,— and, perhaps, anywhere out of Asia ; which is now 

 deposited and arranged at the establishment. As a matter of high literary curiosity, I have requested its 

 distinguished owner to furnish me with a brief account of the library for insertion in the present place, and 

 my reverend friend has been kind enough to comply by the following communication, which I give in his 

 own words : — 



"In the Language Institution there is deposited an extensive library of Chinese printed books and 

 MSS., together with a museum intended to illustrate subjects referred to in the books. This Library and 

 Museum are the property of Dr. Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China. 



" There are between nine hundred and a thousand works ; making in all about 10,000 volumes, stitched 

 and bound in the Chinese manner. 



" These books contain specimens of the literature of more than three thousand years ; from the com- 

 pilations and original writings of Confucius, five hundred years before the Christian era down to the pre- 

 sent time. '■ 



" The materials from which Confucius compiled the works he put forth are not extant in any other form than 

 that which he gave them ; and therefore, he may be regarded as the oldest Chinese writer whose works have 

 come down to the present day. 



"Dr. Morrison has not had time, during his sojourn in Europe, to make out a Catalogue Raisonn6 of his 

 Chinese library, with a brief account of the chief works, their titles, subjects, authors, date &e 



"They consist of the sacred books of Chinese antiquity, with copious commentaries, writt^^n at various 

 periods, and by a great variety of persons ; history, ancient and modern ; geo"-raphy and topo"-raphy : 

 astronomy; biography ; opinions on government ; rites and usages of China; religious books, of Laoukew 

 nism, Iludhism ; and tiie morals of Confuciaytism ; poetry; historical and other novels- medicine; 

 botany ; and the materia medica ; notices of foreign nations, and embassies to China ; works composed by 

 Jesuit missionaries conceniiiig Europe and Christianity ; the European geometry • and the astronomy of 

 the fifteentli century, &c. ; a few works on the religion of Mahomet, <tc. &c." 



t Embassy, ii. 676 ; Hager's Chinese Elements, p. Ixi. 



