not quite fp much out o f order as theDodor feems to be out o f
his province in attempting a critique on a language, o f which he
really poffeffes a very fuperficial knowledge. The firft character
moo is compofed o f / ~ - ■** J and the fecond
f | ^ tien of^ ‘ J nc.—*>. the one o f four, and the other
o f live lines, according to the Arrangement o f Chinefe didiona-
ries, and their elementary treatifes.
Among the roots or primitives that mod: frequently occur
are thofe .expreffing the hand, heart, mouth, and the five elements,
earth, air, fir e , wood, and water. Man is alfo a very
common rcot.
The compofition o f characters is capable o f exercifing a very
confiderable degree o f ingenuity, and the analyfis o f them is
extremely entertaining to a foreigner. As in a propofition of
Euclid it is neceifary to go through the whole demonftration
before the figure to which it refers can be properly underftood,
fo, in the Chinefe charader, the fenfe o f the feveral component
parts mud: firft be known in order to comprehend the meaning
o f the compound. T o endeavour to recoiled them without
this knowledge would be a laborious and almoft impoffible
effort o f the mind. - Indeed, after this knowledge is acquired,
the fenfe is fometimes fo hid. in metaphor, and in allufions to
particular cuftoms or ways o f thinking, that when all the component
parts o f a charader are well underftood, the meaning
may yet remain in obfcurity. It may not be difficult to conceive,
for inftance, that in a figurative language, the union o f
/the
the fu n and moon might be.employed to exprefs any extraordinary
degree of light or brilliancy; but it- would not fo readily
occur, that the charader foo or happinefis, or fupreme felicity ,«
ihould be defigned by the union of the charaders expreffing a
fpirit or demon, the number one or unity, a mouth, and a piece
o f cultivated ground, thus . This charader in the Chinefe
language is meant to convey the fame idea as the word comfort does
in our own. The c-harader implying the middle o f any thing, annexed
to that o f heart, was not inaptly employed to exprefs a very
dear frien d , nor that with the heart furmounted by a negative,
to imply indifference, no h e a r t but it is not-fo eafy to affign
any reafon why the charader ping, fignifying rank or order,
ihould be expreffed by the charader mouth,repeated thrice, and
placed like the three balls o f a pawnbroker, thus ^ , or w hy
four of thefe mouths arranged as under, with the charader ta,great,
in the center, ihould imply an inftrument, or piece o f mechanifm.
m
. Nor would it readily occur why the charader^ nan,
t a
mafculine, ihould be made up o f tien, a field , and lee, firength,
unlefs from the idea that the male f i x poffeffesfirength, and
only can inherit land. But that a fmoothnefi or volubility o f
fpeech ihould be defigned by koo, mouth, and kin,gold, we
can’ more eafily conceive, as we apply the epithet filvertongue
pretty nearly on the fame occafion.
I f the Chinefe had rigidly adhered to the ingenious and phi-
lofophical mechanifm they originally employed in the conftruction