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LIT'ERAL, f Primitive or literal meaning.—How 
dangerous it is in feniible things to ufe metaphorical ex- 
prefficns unto the people, and what abfurd conceits they 
will fwallow in their literals , an example we have in our 
profefiion. Brown. 
LITERAL'ITY, f. Original meaning.—Not attaining 
the true deuterolcopy and fecond intention of the words, 
they are fain to omit their fuperconlequences, cohe'rences, 
figures, or tropologies, and are not fometimes perfuaded 
beyond their literalities. Brown's Vulgar Errors. 
LITTRALLY, aav. According to the primitive im¬ 
port of words ; not figuratively.—That a man and his 
wife are one flefh, I can comprehend ; yet, literally taken, 
it is a thing impofiible. Swift. —With clofe adherence to 
words; word by word.—So wild and ungovernable a poet 
cannot be translated literally ; his genius is too ftrong to 
bear a chain. Dryden. 
LITTRARY, adj. Of letters.—The former of thefe 
appears with too much diftinftion in the literary as well 
as fafhionable world, to make it necefiary I fliould en¬ 
large upon his Jubjech Mafon's Life of Gray, 
LIT'ERARY PROP'ERTY. See the article LITERA¬ 
TURE. 
LIT'ERATE. adj. [from liter a, Lat. a letter.] Learned, 
fkilled in letters. 
LITERA'TI, f. [Italian.] The learned.—I fhall con- 
fult fome literati on the project fent me for the dil’covery 
of the longitude. SpcElator. —Among the Chinefe, fuch as 
are able to read and write their own language ; for it does 
not appear that they ftudy any other; nor indeed can it 
be expelled, when the extreme difficulty of acquiring a 
competent knowledge of that one language is confidered. 
See the article Language, p. 173. 
The literati form the moll diftinguifhed part of the 
Chinefe nation. For more than 2000 years, they have 
conftantly held the chief rank in the empire ; and it is 
always from among them that mailers are chofen for the 
education of youth ; minifters, for the adminiftration of 
public affairs ; and magiilrates, for judging the people; 
in a word, the literati are, in fome meafure, the foul of the 
Chinefe nation, fince it is from them that it.receives its 
moral exiftence, and its civil and political being. The li¬ 
terati muft therefore be very numerous in a flare, where 
they enjoy every diftinftion attached to pre-eminence, 
and where every thing favours their increafe. Since learn¬ 
ing is the only means that conducts to civil honours, it is 
necefiary that thofe who alpire to them fhould cultivate 
letters; and they mull make it appear, that they have cul¬ 
tivated them with fuccefs, before they can obtain any ci¬ 
vil employment. To guard againfl imposition, govern¬ 
ment has fixed for every city of the firft, fecond, and third, 
clafs, the number of literati who can be legally promoted 
every year to the firft degree of literature, which is that 
of fieou-tfai, and which anfwers to bachelor of arts in our 
univerfities. Every fieou-tfai is accounted noble, and is 
never enrolled among the taxables. Of thefe there are 
reckoned to be in China 24,701 individuals, who are an¬ 
nually introduced to the firft degree of literati ; and the 
number of thofe admitted before may be fuppoled to be 
at leaft twenty times as great. According to this eftimate 
there are always in China 454,020 literati, who have taken 
degree?, and who are, confequently, not included among 
the taxables. From among the literati are chofen all the 
mandarins except the mandarins of arms : thefe lad are 
indeed very numerous; but then it is to be obferved, that 
they have no (hare in the government, which in every 
department is entirely confided to the literati, or manda¬ 
rins of letters. See the article China, vol. iv. p. 446, 7. 
LIT'ERATURE,/! [literatura, Lat.] Learning; fkill 
in letters.—This kingdom hath been famous for good li¬ 
terature ; and, if preferment attend defervers, there will 
not want fupplies. Bacon. 
To trace the gradations of excellence, to behold one 
period adding its own difeoveries to the experience of 
another, and to obferve the progrefs of each fucceflive age 
in wifdotn and fcience, is a difquifition in the highell de- 
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gree ufeful and entertaining to a liberal mind. Even a 
partial inveftigation into the progrefs of improvement, is, 
to a rnan of bufinefs, an agreeable relaxation ; to him 
who is not confined for fubfiftence to any particular pro- 
feflion, it is a pleafant, if not a neceffary, fource of em¬ 
ployment ; to the philofophcr it affords matter of wonder 
and admiration, and lays a foundation for the moll in- 
teiefting difeoveries. 
An enquiry into the rife and progrefs of literature, with 
which the arts and fciences are intimately connected, is 
perhaps the moft interesting that can, be ottered to our 
notice. We can contemplate man at firft rude and un¬ 
restrained ; afterwards obliged by necefiity to fubmit to 
laws, and cultivate the arts of fociai life, while his ad¬ 
vancement in fcience and the liberal arts kept pace with 
his proficiency in virtue and cultivation. This, we know, 
has ever been the cafe in the original formation of ftates 
and empires. It is alfo gratifying to obferve, from what 
fmall beginnings, and by what flow gradations, the moft 
polifbed nations have arifen from the greateft depths of 
ignorance and barbarity, to the utmoft heights of learning 
and politenefs. There are revolutions iri the literary as 
v.'ell as in the political world, an enquiry into which 
would afford equal pleafure to the curious or inquifitive 
obferver. The decay of learning and knowledge is ge¬ 
nerally rapid in proportion to its advancement: hence 
nations fucceed each other in literary eminence, as well 
as in political fuperiority. 
Plowever nec-effary, ufeful, and entertaining, the dif- 
quifition may be, it has been very little touched upon, for 
a very obvious reafon. The nature of the undertaking 
appears to prefent innumerable obftacles to its fuccefs. 
The difficulty of obtaining materials for a work of this 
kind, and of arranging them when obtained, deters the 
more wealthy writers ; while poor ones have the additional 
difadvantages to combat—of want of time, and want of 
money. “ It is a painful confkieration,” fays fir William 
Jones, “ that the profeftion of literature, by far the moft 
laborious of any, leads to no real benefit or true glory 
whatfoever. Poetry, fcience, letters, when they are not 
made the foie bufinefs of life, may become its ornaments 
in profperity; and its moft pleafing confolation in a change 
of fortune ; but if a man addicts hiinfelf entirely to learn¬ 
ing, and hopes by that either to raife a family, or to ac¬ 
quire what fo many wifti for and fo few ever obtain—an 
honourable retirement in his declining age, he will find, 
when it is too late, that he has miftaken his path; that 
other labours, other ftudies, are necefiary; and that, un- 
lefs he can aflert his own independence in active life, it 
will avail him little to be favoured by the learned, es¬ 
teemed by the eminent, or recommended even by kings.” 
A difquifition of this kind refembles an extenfive terri¬ 
tory, in which are fcattered in profufion all the beauties 
of nature, whofe extent deters the dull and indolent from 
entering it; while the pleafant objects which it prefents 
to view, fully repay the aflive and perfevering for their 
labour. 
The delights and advantages refulting from literary ac- 
quifitions are univerfally acknowledged. There are few 
fo ignorant as to be unable to extol them, and few fo un¬ 
cultivated as not to with for their enjoyment. They 
are the general topics of difeourfe, the general fubjeits of 
declamation. This general confeffion of the utility of li¬ 
terature, renders education more general; education pro¬ 
motes the diffufion of knowledge and learning; which 
contributes to general happinefs, by affording a fource of 
ufeful occupation and rational entertainment. It is de¬ 
lightful to obferve, in the ocean of time, fome few who 
have been able to elevate themlelves above the undiftin- 
guifhed mafs with which it is covered, without pofiefiing 
any previous advantages fuperior to thofe of their fellow- 
combatants ; and, when they fank, have left a mark which 
not even fiicceeding florins could eradicate. Thofe were 
the men who have foared above the common race of mor¬ 
tals, and to whofe elevation we look up with awe and ad¬ 
miration. 
But, 
