expreifed in fuch others as are fuppofed to be moft familiar ;
and, in the method made ufe o f for conveying this information,
o the Chinefe have difcovered fome faint and very imperfeCt idea
o f alphabetic writing, by fplitting the monofyllabic found into
a diifyllable, and again compreffing the diifyllable into a fimple
found. One inftance will ferve to explain this method. Sup-
pofe the name o f the character under confideration to be ping.
I f no fingle character be thought fufficiently fimple to exprefs
the found ping, immediately after it will be placed two well-
known characters p e .and ing; but, as every character in the language
has a monofyllabic found, it will readily be concluded,
that pe and ing, when compreifed into one fyllable, muft be pronounced
ping. After thefe, the meaning or explanation follows,
in the cleared and moft eafy characters that can be employed.
When, indeed, a confiderable progrefs has been made in the
language, the general meaning o f many o f the characters may
be pretty nearly gueffed at by the eye alone, as they will moftly
be found to have fome reference, either immediate or remote,
though very often in a figurative fenfe, to the fignification o f
the-key or root; in the fame manner as in the claffification o f
objeCts in natural hiftory, every fpecies may be referred to its
proper genus. The figns, for inftance, expreffing the hand
and me heart, are two roots, and all the works o f art, the different
trades and manufactures, arrange themfelves under the
firft, and all the paffions, affeCtions, and fentiments o f the
mind under the latter. The root o f an unit or one comprehends
all the characters expreffive o f unity, concord, harmony, and the
i like.
like. Thus, if I obferve a character compounded o f the two
fimple roots, one and heart, I 'have no difficulty in concluding
that its fignification is unanimity, but, if the fign o f a negative
ihould alfo appear in the Tame character, the meaning will be
reverfed to‘ difcord or dijjention, literally not one heart. Many
proper names o f perfons have the character fignifying man For
their key or root, and all foreign names have the character
mouth or voice annexed, which ihews at once that the character
is a proper name employed only to exprefs found without any
particular meaning.
Nor are. thefe keys or roots, although fometimes placed on
the right o f the character, fometimes on the left, now at the
top, and then at the bottom, fo very difficult to be difcovered
to a perfon who knows but a little o f the language, as DoCtor
Hager has imagined. This is by far the eafieft part o f the language.
The abbreviations in the compound characters, and
the figurative fenfe in which they are fometimes ufed, conftitute
the difficulty, by the obfcurity in which they are involved, and
the ambiguity to which they are liable.
The DoCtor is equally unfortunate in the difcovery which he
thinks he has made o f a want o f order in claffing the elements
according to the number o f lines they contain. The inftances
he gives o f fuch anomaly are in the two characters o f
moo, mother; and F f jlie n , cultivated ground : the firft
o f which he is furprifed to find among the elementary characters
o f fo u r lines, and the latter (which he afferts to be ftill
more fimple) among thofe offiv e . The Chinefe, however, are