Had the Chinese philologists therefore, overlooked the variations of the substantive and the adjective, and contented themselves with marking by some addition to the character, the inflections of the verb alone, nay had they even reduced these additions for expressing the voices, moods, and tenses, as low as a hundred, this would have increased five thousand verbal characters to five hundred thousand; and double that number, to a million of different characters! It hence follows of necessity, that the Chinese must express all the variations arising from case, number, and gender in their nouns, and from mood, tense, and person in their verbs, either by the juxta-position of the characters, or the connection of the sentence. To the elucidation of this fact we now proceed.

OF SUBSTANTIVES.

Of this we

A Chinese character may in general be considered as conveying an idea without reference to any part of speech; and its being used as a substantive, an adjective, or a verb, depends on circumstances. shall perhaps form some idea by recollecting the usage of other languages. In the Alphabetic systems two different modes of forming the parts of speech are evident: the first is that which obtains in Greek, Sungskrit, and certain other languages, wherein a word is given as a kind of root, which, by receiving the verbal terminations, becomes a verb; by receiving certain other terminations a substantive; by receiving others, an adjective; and by assuming an adverbial termination, an adverb. Such is dixaos, or rather the root divested of the adjectival termination. Though found in the state most nearly approaching an adjective, by receiving w it becomes a

verb; by receiving on, a substantive; and when the adverbial termination ws is added, it may be used as an adverb. A second mode is that of the Hebrew and its cognate dialects, in which an idea is expressed by a root consisting generally of three letters, which root, in its original state, is most commonly a verb, but which in numerous instances is also used as a noun, and in some instances as an adverb, without the addition of another letter, though others receive some addition.*-Somewhat akin to this, is the mode which obtains in a certain degree in the English language, which, in some instances, uses the same word as a substantive, an adjective, and a verb. This is the case with "cut" which we use as a substantive when we say a severe cut with a sword;" as an adjective in the sentence "he appeared in a cut wig," and as a verb in," they cut through the enemy." The word present is used still more extensively. In the sentence "he made him a handsome present," it is a substantive; in, "the present season," it is an adjective: changing the accent in another sentence, it becomes a verb, "they present him annually with a large sum;" and in the following sentence it forms an adverb, "at present I am quite unable." Multitudes of words occur too, which are used both as nouns and verbs without the least change, as love, fear, hope, &c. and even certain names of sensible objects; as the head, they head the mob;" the hand, " hand me the book;" the eye," they eye me constantly;" a pen; "I pen an epistle;" with many others. These examples shew the possibility of using a word in various grammatical senses with

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The author is well aware that the Hebrew language is not formed wholly on this principle, but that most of the roots both in Hebrew and its cognate dialects, undergo a variety of changes. Inasmuch as certain of them however, admit no change except in the vowels (or the pronunciation of the word), there seems no impropriety in selecting this fact by way of illustration.

out the least change in the word itself, while the accompanying characters define with certainty the sense in which it is used. It is to this last class that the Chinese language belongs; but it evidently carries the principle farther than any other language, beside those descended from itself.

Of the various Kinds of Substantives.

In the Chinese language there are, however, Substantives of various kinds. Many characters originally express things; and although some of these may also be used to denote this thing either in action, or as adding its qualities to another, it is not every character which can be thus applied the nature of many forbids their being used in any other way than to denote the thing which they signify; thus the character for a man, a dog, the hand, water, and many others, are scarcely ever used except as substantives. In this one instance, the flexibility of the English language exceeds that of the Chinese; for, to man a vessel, to dog a thief, to hand a letter to a friend, to water a garden, are expressions perfectly congenial with the English language, while to express these ideas in Chinese, characters must be used differing entirely from those which signify a man, a dog, or the hand. Thus the first class of Chinese substantives, may be said to include those which from their peculiar nature denote things alone.

2. Another kind consists of characters originally intended to express actions, and which in their primary meaning, may therefore be termed verbs, but which as well denote the thing expressed by the action. Thus

hing, to walk, to act, not only forms the verbal noun an acting; but also the substantive, acts, deeds. The character for the verb to eat, denotes not merely an eating; but in certain situations, the substantive, food: and the character ngan, which signifies to rest, to be at ease, not only signifies a resting; but in certain connections, ease, rest, comfort. These form a considerable part of the language.

3. A third kind, but similar to these, are certain characters originally used as adjectives; such as foò, rich, and kwy, honorable. The former − of these, in certain situations will denote the substantive riches, and the latter, the substantive honor. In many of these cases however, the character assumes an intonation different from its original one, which is marked in a very ingenious way by a small circle on the character, placed at the bottom of the left side, if it be the first tone added; on the top to the left, if the second be intended; on the top to the right, if the third be meant; and at the bottom to the right, if the fourth be intended. Further, in some instances a character has one name when used as a verb; and when used as a substantive, another. Thus when it means to eat, is termed tchhih, but when intended to denote food, it is pronounced tse. An example of this character

as used in both senses, occurs in book v. of Lun-yu. The disciple of the

sage, enumerating his peculiarities relative to diet, says;

tchhih. pooh

鍋 yài 而 Mirre Ta

2 食

"Food (or rice) spoiled in dressing, and which had an unpleasant savor, he did not eat." Lun-yu, b, v.

Here the same character, denoting "food" in the first instance, is termed tse; but in the last, as it means "to eat," it retains its original name.

4. A Fourth kind are such as may be termed nouns of agency, or those which express the agent or doer. These are formed with much simplicity. After characters used as verbs, the doer or the person of whom the action is predicated, is generally expressed by adding the auxiliary character tchyéa, of which the following sentence furnishes several examples. In

the second book of Lun-yu, the sage describes the man who loves virtue and abhors vice, in these terms:

"I have not yet seen the man who thoroughly esteems virtue, and who abhors vice. He who thoroughly esteems virtue, has nothing which he prefers thereto; he who abhors vice, for the sake of preserving his virtue, suffers not the least vice to approach his person." Lun-yu, b. ii.

* N. B. In all the examples given in this grammar, the names of such characters as are intended to illustrate the rule or observation, are in Italics, as well as the translation of them in the English sentence. The Chinese sentences of course begin at the right hand, and are to be read downwards.