iMIl ATIVE AND SYMBOLICAL, 



307 



Kven 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, 

 oi' 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 clanft 

 amounted to not less than eighteen hundred, each of which had its chief* 

 tain, who possessed abfolute and hereditary power ; though all united in 

 acknowledging the supremacy of this family and conceding to it the im- 

 perial dignity. It was only about two hundred years before our own era 

 that these clans were reduced to seven ; and some time afterwards that 

 Che-hwang-h^, the first emperor of the dynasty T'sin, succeedf3d in almalga- 

 mating the whole into one vast and massy despotism, the great outlinedi 

 of which continue to the present day.* 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 affirms, from their own his*^ 

 torians, that generally speaking they were barbarians in literature as well 

 as in manners, and could " neither read, nor write, nor cipher."t 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 datcJ 

 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 T 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 Wri- 

 ting, even by the use of alphabetic characters, instead of having beeii 

 communicated to Moses by some special interposition of the Deity, was, 

 in his day, as famihar to his countrymen as to himself ; that it was gene- 

 rally 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. 



Supposing,}: by a miracle, the world were now to be reduced to the 

 stage in which we may conceive it to have existed in its infancy ; and 

 every trace and idea of written language were to be swept away, and the 

 only means of communication to be that of the voice, what would be the 

 mode most likely to be resorted to of imparting to a deaf person, or a 

 foreigner ignorant of our dialect, a knowledge of any particular fa6t or 

 thing with which we might wish him to be acquainted ? The reply is ob- 

 vious : we should point at it if in sight ; and if not, endeavour to sketch 



* Part iv. sec. 9. See Milne's Retrospect of the First Ten Years of the Protestant Mis- 

 sion to China. Malacca Press. 8vo. 1820. p. 18. 

 t Kwoh-tseh. Pref. p. 1. Milne, ut supr. p. 20. 



t A few pages of this lecture, particularly adapted to the occasion, were iutrodueed into 

 an article in the British Review for 1811, at the reques of the writer's friend, who was at 

 that time its editor ; and may bs foand in the aoalyeis there given of Dr. Marshmas's cle- 

 rooats ef Chinese Grammato 



