Of Participles. These, both active and passive, are necessarily to be found in every language. Nor is the Chinese an exception; of the Active participle numerous examples occur in all their writings, as well as in conversation; and it has been already shewn, that the active verb, divested of its verbal position, becomes either a verbal noun, or a Passive participle.

The Active Participle. Active Participles abound so much, that the difficulty lies in selecting: many examples have already appeared in the sentences quoted, to which we may add another from the first volume of Lun-yu:

"Kee-wun-tse* thrice reflected and then proceeded to action. Confucius hearing this mentioned, said, "Reflect twice, this is fully sufficient."

Lun-yu, vol. i.

In this example, wun, in the fourth line from the right, has the force of the active participle 'hearing.'

In Chinese as in English, the active participle often becomes a substantive. Speaking of Tse-chhan, a mandarine who lived in the age preceding his own, Confucius declares, that he possessed the genuine characteristics of the superior man, which he illustrates thus;

* A mandarine of Loo, who lived in the reign of Sing-koong, five reigns before the birth of Confucias.

“ His governing himself was severe; his serving those above him, reverential; his nourishing the people, tenderly affectionate; his employing them, equitable.” Lun-yu, b. iii. f. 6.

In this sentence the active participle, uniting with the possessive khee, 'his,' becomes a participial substantive in no less than four instances.

Of the Passive Participle, as so many examples have already appeared, it seems needless to add more : sé, í dead;' shăh, 'killed ;' and chee, 'known,' which the reader may find p. 395, form a sufficient number. On reviewing all the examples adduced to illustrate the Moods, we find, that the ideas expressed by the Indicative, the Imperative, the Potential, the Optative, the Subjunctive, and the Infinitive Moods, are fully expressed in the Chinese language; as well as those conveyed by the active and passive Participles.

Of the Tenses.

In the standard writings of the Chinese are to be traced Five Tenses evidently distinct from each other; the Aorist, the Present tense, the Perfect, the Past connected with time, and the Future. The three latter include some varieties.

The Indefinite or Aorist.—Of the simple verb's being used indefinitely, to express the present, the past, and the future, numerous examples may be found in Confucius and Mung, in the Chinese commentators of the twelfth century, and in the Annals of China. When the simple verb is applied to the Present tense without an adverb of time, it generally denotes the Present Indefinite, or a course of action without regard to time. Of this, an instance occurs in a sentence already quoted from the second volume of

"He who may be termed a great minister, serves his sovereign in the path of vir tue alone."

Lun-yu, vol. ii.

In this sentence the action is evidently described as constant, without reference to any point of time.

Cec

The simple verb is still more frequently used to denote the Past. On the death of Hooi, the favorite disciple of the Chinese sage, his disciples wished

to inter him in a sumptuous manner; which Confucius highly disapproved.

It is added however, by the compiler of Lun-yu,

In this sentence the verb tsàng, inter,' must evidently be understood in the past tense, as narrating a past transaction,

The simple verb occasionally denotes a Future action likewise. In the volume just quoted, Kec-loo, one of the sage's disciples, is described as enquir

ing relative to the dead, to whom the sage thus replies,

"Thou dost not yet know the living; how wilt thou know the dead?”

Lun-yu, b. vi. fol. iii.

In this sentence, the latter verb necessarily carries within itself a future sense, although accompanied with no character to mark the future. Nor is this peculiar to the style of these ancient writers: the same mode of construction is observable in the Annals of China,' the style of which, though chaste and perspicuous, is quite of the narrative kind. In the tenth volume,

the first emperor of the Han dynasty thus addresses his prime minister Tchin

"The empire is still in a state of distraction; when will it become settled.”

Kang-kyen, vol. x.

In this sentence, the verb ting, 'to be settled,' must necessarily be understand in a future sense. The simple verb, therefore, when used without any particle or circumstance to fix the time, is evidently indefinite, the time being determined by the connexion alone, as is the case in many instances with the Greek Aorist.*

While a Chinese verb has in itself however, a capacity of expressing the past, the future, and the present, certain circumstances of time, &c. are often connected with the verb in their standard writings; and the characters. employed to mark these, necessarily discriminate and fix the time or tense of the verb. Thus a character expressive of 'now, restricts the performance of the action to the present time; one denoting completion or fulfilment, implies the past; and one expressing will and determination, as certainly marks the future. These we proceed to consider:

* "The Second Aorist,----seems to be more undetermined than the First, inasmuch as it is oftener put than the first for different tenses, present, past, or future." See Port Royal Greek Grammar p. 397.