*

we cannot decide upon its relative merits. The Chinese, however, are less perfect in music than in poetry: and in poetry they are very distant from celebrity. Music being neither fashionable as an accomplishment, nor practised as an amusement, is little cultivated of course, and has not risen to the dignity of a science among the Chinese. That to educe harmony from chaotic materials, a degree of perspicacity and invention as likewise of taste, is needful, seems to be the case; but harmony is not, per se, music; but is a distinct quality independant of, and yet essential to it. We perceive harmony in an arrangement of words, in the architecture of a building, and in a variety of things in which there is no music. If harmony, as only a constituent part of music, requires a degree of intellectual energy to produce it, as a corrollary, it follows, that to compose music, or invent it, a higher degree of mind is necessary; as a complex notion is more difficult to apprehend, than a simple one. But this degree of mind the Chinese appear not to be endowed with!t

Having thus cursorily remarked the progress of the Chinese in the sciences which more immediately are connected with the active powers of the mind, and which by their condition of excellence, infallibly indicate its inherent vigour and capacity. It may likewise conduce to develop their genius, just to take a slight review of the arts, manufactures, and trades in China.

Navigation is by the Chinese, as might with reason be expected, from their ignorance of astronomy, as little known as practised, the pilots on the coasts being the only navigators. For finding the latitude, they have neither instruments, nor charts, their experience in their business, and a knowledge of the coast, is the only guide to security.S The notion prevalent of the earth, being a horizontal superficies, combined with the want of enterprising foreign trade, and the solitary policy of the government, and disposition of the people, may account for their ignorance in it. The art of ship-building from the same causes, is very imperfect. Their husbandry, however, is not much in

* Du Halde, 3 vol. p. 110.

† Barrow, 209.

* For a specimen of their music, see Barrow and Du Halde.

" The jurisprudence and polity of China, will be the object of the 2d part of this essay.

Staunton, vol. 1. p. 217.

TIb. 247.

ferior, in the practical parts, and its effects, to that of other countries; though they exhibit the absence of those improvements, which it is the peculiar province of philosophy to make in every gradation of life. Manual labour is mostly used for

every purpose, though the buffalo, and ox, and horse, are employed in labour too great for man. The vernal ceremony of ploughing, in which the emperor, with rustic humility, condescends to follow it, is calculated to incite the people to perseverance in labour; but is rather to be esteemed a political expedient, than a moral lesson. In the southern provinces of the empire, the fecundity of the soil, yields annually two crops; but to the north, the coldness of the climate, and the proportionate sterility, allows but one crop.*

To admit as true, the history and pretensions of the Chinese, in every respect, would indeed make them greater in perfection, than any nation of modern Europe. It is a supposition springing from the peculiar character and circumstances of this people, that they must be totally unacquainted with those military instruments, which nothing but the necessity of their aid, and the valour of the people could possibly suggest the invention. Valour we do not find to be the principal ingredient in the dull character of the Chinese; and of war they have had less than any other nation subsisting; and in those in which they were opposed by the Tartars, there could be little occasion for such kinds of arms. In diametrical opposition, however, to this natural inference, the Chinese lay claim to a very ancient knowledge of cannon; but they cannot adduce as proof, one of native manufacture, nor is the manner of using such engines known to them: of muskets they were totally ignorant, either of the manufacture or use, till the Europeans introduced them, and they are without the later improvements.† Gun-powder seems to have been known to them antecedent to the christian erat.

The porcelain of the Chinese has obtained so great celebrity that its excellence is universally known. The art of manufacturing glass was introduced into China in the seventeenth century, before which period they were uninstructed in it. Not better acquainted were they with clocks, until the Europeans * Barrow, p. 200. † Ib. 204. + Ib. 200. $ Ib. 204.

gave them models, from which they soon acquired the art of making them.* And so grossly deficient are they in the genius of invention, that to publicly announce the hour of the day in their capitol of Pekin, a large bell is struck with a mallet a number of strokes equal to the hour; for which purpose a man is appointed to observe the process of time, as indicated by the waste of a burning taper.† The silk manufacture is probably an invention of their own, as no trace can be found of its being exotic; no perceptible improvement, however, has been made in this, or any other art, custom forbidding those alterations, which expediency might suggest.

To detail with minute precision, each particular trade, manufacture, and art, of the Chinese, would be extraneous to the object of this essay, which only details individual facts, to deduce general consequences; and more exclusively to record those intimately connected with the mind, and which depend more on energetic intellect, for their original and improvement, than on manual dexterity. The genius of a people from the latter, can be but indistinctly perceived, if at all; it is a mere display of animal ingenuity, and if there subsist no corroborative evidence, which show symptoms of strength and capacity of understanding, there can be little or no ground for concluding such a nation, one jot aboye barbarity. This I apprehend, is an indubitable test of the mind of a people. The aborigines of America, had many manual arts which exhibited much dexterity; and in those parts of Africa the least humanized, it is known, there prevails no inconsiderable degree of expertness, in providing for convenient living. But who, from these circumstances, would infer that the Africans were. e in a state of civili sation, or the Americans of refinement? Such dexterity in subordinate arts, may subsist independent of great pneumatic powers; but perfection in all the arts, is the natural, unavoidable ef fect of repletion of mind, applying its energies to promote the comfort, and add to the felicity of life. Hence in investigating facts, to establish conclusions, regarding the genius of a people, attention should be had chiefly to their science, which immediately regulates, and on which hangs the excellence of the † Staunton, vol. 2. p. 241. DID,bne

VOL. V.

Barrow, 205.

3 T

arts. In the Chinese, this principle is remarkably exemplified in the equality of those two branches of human attainment.

The Chinese, endued with but an ordinary degree of mental faculty, capable only of comprehending detached particulars, and of retaining the knowledge derived from experience, never embrace a comprehensive survey of human nature, and cannot imagine how that proposition can be true, which never had the test itself, of actual experience; they therefore by never trusting to general principles in reasoning, have not yet become eminent in science; and as their whole stock of knowledge is little more, than a gradual accumulation of successive experimental facts, consequently without connection or dependence, or continued order, and regular congruity, as is palpably manifested in their actual condition, imperfection, by a natural result, appears a prominent feature in their arts; a feature that can never be effaced, without a total revolution in the prejudices, passions, and sentiments, which subsist in the mind from whence it takes its form!

(To be continued.)

LITERARY CURIOSITY.

PROCLUS.

MR. EDITOR,

In the year 1767, there was published for John Bryce, in the Salt Market, at Glasgow, a book entitled CLAVIS CANTICI, or an exposition of the SONG OF SOLOMON, by JAMES DURHAM, late minister of the gospel in Glasgow.

The dedication to this book, by Margaret Durham, his widow, is a specimen of religious eloquence, so honest, so earnest, so warm and zealous, so manifestly penned (if ever any thing was penned) con amore-but withal so laboured, so quaintly metaphorical, so strangely mystical, so enveloping the associations of sense with the forms of devotion; that it well deserves to be rescued from oblivion. Quarles has nothing so quaint: Guion, Bourignon, Whitfield, Wesley, and Zinzendorf, have nothing so warm. It is an excellent commentary on Rosseau's observation, that Love is always apt to borrow the language of Devotion; or rather that the language of both are the same, when the feelings and the passions are excited to the utmost, while Reason and Judgment being discarded, are lamenting lookers on. I have no intention in sending you this, to throw any thing like ridicule upon the fair authoress, and still less upon the subject: but eloquence, under whatever garb will al

ways be interesting, and singularity wherever found will furnish food for reflection, as well as amusement.

To the right honourable, truly noble, and religious lady, my lady viscountess of Kenmure.

MADAM,

MANY have been the helps and furtherances that the people of God, in these latter times, and more especially in these lands, have had in their christian course and way to heaven: in which respect, our blessings have not a little prevailed above the blessings of our progenitors, who, as they enjoyed not such plentiful preaching of the gospel, so were they not privileged with so many of the printed, and published labours of his servants, succinctly and clearly opening up the meaning; and by brief, plain, familiar, and edifying observations, making application of the holy scriptures in our own vulgar language, and that even to the lowest capacities: a rich treasure highly valuable above all the gold of both Indies, and the greatest external blessings of the most potent and flourishing nations; and the more to be valued, if we call to remembrance, how that not very many years ago, the christians in this same island, would have travelled far to have heard a portion of the scripture only read to them, and would very liberally and cheerfully have contributed of their substance for that end; and would withal carefully have sought out, and at high rates made purchase of a Bible, a New Testament, or any small treatise (then very rare and hard to come by) affording but the least measure of light in the scriptures (which in those dark times were to them much as a sealed book in comparison of what they have been in the late bright and glorious' sun-shine of the gospel to us), though to the manifest hazard of being burnt quick for so doing. O how highly would these precious souls have prized. and how mightily would they have improved the frequent, pure, plain, and powerful preachings, and many excellent writings, wherewith Britain and Ireland, have to admiration been privileged of late years! Sure their laborious, painful, costly, and hazardous diligence, in seeking after the knowledge of God, according to his word, will rise in the judgment against this careless, lazy, negligent, and slothful generation, who, in the use of so many various and choice