supports of life omitted, grain, pulse, flesh, fish, &c.; nor the elements, water, fire, earth, &c.; nor the primary relations of society, father, mother, son, daughter. We find also among these not only a character to denote the body, but one representing the soul or spirit, (when departed), as well as characters denoting certain articles used in worship.- Qualities, though more difficult

of representation, are not wholly overlooked; yet all the elements expressive of these, scarcely amount to thirty; among which will be found such as most obviously strike the senses, as great, small, straight, crooked, dark, white, high, low, long or wide, &c.-To express actions by appropriate symbols, seems a task still more difficult; accordingly, on examining the elements, we find this class still smaller than the foregoing; an attempt is made however to express the most common actions of life, such as to see, to speak, to walk, to run, to stop, to enter, to follow, to move quickly, to use, to shew, &c.Such are the Two Hundred and Fourteen Elements, which are justly esteemed the foundation of the Chinese language.

PROGRESS OF THE LANGUAGE.

Having thus considered the elements relative to their origin and the objects they represent, it seems desirable to attempt tracing, as far as we are able, the progress of this invention. Herein we are assisted in some degree by the Chinese themselves. They divide the characters into Six Classes, the first three of which include those characters which in a qualified sense may be termed Simple; and the three last regard the Compound characters. The first efforts, as already observed, being unquestionably employed in attempting to form representations of visible objects, these form the First class, and

are termed Syáng hhing, “imitations or figures." This class includes rather more than half the elements, and a few other characters which are more simple in their forms than some of the elements, though not ranked among them. Among the elements, the sun, the moon, are adduced by the Chinese as belonging to this class. Nor is it any objection to this that these characters bear but a faint resemblance to the things they represent. It is pretty generally understood, that the first forms of these differed much from the present characters: that for the sun, is said to have been formerly made thus, ;

and that for the moon, thus, A; and so of A; and so of many others. This class may

be termed Imitative; it evidently forms the basis of the language.

The Second class in order in the Chinese series, probably points out the next step taken to extend this medium of communication. It is termed by the Chinese kya-tsyèa, “feigned or made," and is said to apply the characters in a double sense. They adduce as examples of this, ch'hang, long, wide, which from signifying the length or extension of matter, was applied to denote length of time, &c.; andling, which from being originally used to denote order, command, was at length applied to signify the thing ordered or appointed, as shee-ling, the various parts of time ordered or appointed, that is, the months of the year. Of this kind also is tshee, an arrow, which from the straight course of an arrow, was used to signify direct, right, a word spoken directly to the point; and hence when combined with khoú, a mouth, it forms chee, knowledge; of which more hereafter. This advance seems to have created no new characters, but to have extended those already formed, by applying them in a metaphorical or figurative sense as far as the objects they represented were capable of being thus applied. This class may therefore be termed the Figurative.

But this extension, though it enlarged their medium of intercourse, was in itself limited. A character which merely denoted length, could not without force be made to signify heighth; nor could one denoting command, be with propriety applied to signify depth. Necessity compelled them to advance another step, and gave rise to the forming of the Third class termed Tcheesheè, “indicating the thing," from tchee, to point with the finger, and

that

Ʌyin,

shee, thing, business, &c. These characters, though not pictures of things, seem intended to suggest ideas to the mind from their form and position. As examples of this class, the Chinese adduce_shyang, above, and Thya, beneath, which they say were formed on this principle: admitting yih, a horizontal stroke, denotes the level or medium, by placing a man above it, the idea is suggested of something above or supe rior: this character is used therefore to signify above or superior. On the other hand, by placing yin, a man, below this horizontal line, something below or inferior seemed indicated; this then is used to indicate inferior, below, &c. To this class, which we may term the Indicative, is said to belongpún, which is formed by drawing a short stroke across the middle stroke of

mooh, wood, and which then denotes the root, essense, or internal part of any thing. Somoh, formed by placing a long stroke above močh, wood, denotes the external part of a tree, the branches, and also the exterior of things in general. It is probable, indeed, that a great part of those which are formed by adding merely a stroke or a point to another character, belong to

this class; such as and perhaps

t'hài, huge, formed by adding a dot to★tà, great: choong, within, the medium, &c. formed by drawing a stroke through khoú, the mouth, which character seems more likely to indicate its meaning by its form, than by uniting the two ideas which result

from a perpendicular stroke and the mouth. It would follow of course, that the idea of applying a character figuratively having once arisen, this new class, as well as all following characters, should be thus applied, as far as the subject would permit. It is difficult to speak with exact precision relative to the number of characters included in these two classes; but they probably fall short of a thousand.

We have now seen the Chinese characters extended; pictures of natural objects delineated, these applied figuratively as far as the subject admitted, and new characters formed from them in such a manner, as seemed likely, in the opinion of these ancient philologists, to indicate their own meaning by their form and position. But this seems the utmost extent to which the characters could be carried while they remained thus simple. As a medium of communication, therefore, it was limited still; the grand feature which distinguishes the Chinese language had as yet developed itself no farther than by uniting two characters to form a third by position: it had not been as yet applied to the union of two significant characters to denote a third independently of circumstances. Whether the improvement of the characters by Ts hang-kih extended beyond this, to the combination of the characters with each other, is a question which the absence of written documents relative to that early age will not permit us to decide. The existence of only sixteen letters in the time of Cadmus, and the subsequent invention of the rest, seem to justify the suggestion that the Chinese characters had also their stages of improvement.

The next step, however, gave rise in all probability to the Compounds; a class of characters in their principle almost entirely new, and which with its

modifications has brought the Chinese Language to its present state. This class, which is the Fourth in the Chinese series, is termed Hhooi-ee, "combination of idea," and is formed by uniting two or more significant characters to produce another idea resulting from the meaning of its component parts. This step opened an extensive field to the Chinese philologists, and gave birth to combinations of characters, some of them indeed simple and obvious even to us, but others arising from circumstances which at this distance of time are quite beyond our guess. As examples of this class, the Chinese adduce the adjectivesin, sincere, which they say is formed by adding

yin, the character for man, to ngyén, that for word; and also the substantive woó, majesty, authority, a general, &c. formed from yih, a throwing, and tché, to stop. To this also belongming, clear, bright, illustrious, formed from the union of yik, the sun, and yuch, the moon; and swun, to divide, formed from 7 taó, a knife, and ★ påh, eight; with a multitude of others. This class may be termed Combined.

This class, which differs both from the Indicative and the Imitative, in deducing the meaning from the combination of ideas, rather than from their position like the former, or their form like the latter; and from the Figurative, in expressing directly of themselves the idea intended, seems to have been enlarged by a process not much unlike that by which the Figurative class was formed from the Imitative, namely by turning the original meaning of a character so as to make it express another idea, somewhat different indeed, but still bearing some relation to the original meaning of the compound. This class, which they reckon the Fifth, they term Chuán-chyù, "inverted in meaning," and form it two ways; either by some slight alteration of a character, as the turning of a stroke to the left instead of the right; or by