their anceftors in houfes that differ in nothing from thofe they
inhabited while living, except in their diminutive fiz e ; others
prefer a fquare vault, ornamented in fuch a manner as fancy may
fuggeft; fome make choice o f a hexagon to cover the deceafed,
and others o f an odtagon, The round, the triangular, the fquare,
and multangular column, is indifferently raifed over the grave
o f a Chinefe; but the mod common form o f a monument to
the remains o f perfons o f rank confifts in three terraces, one
above another, inclofed by circular walls. The door or entrance
o f the vault is in the centre o f the uppermoft terrace,
covered with an appropriate infcription ; and figures o f Haves
and horfes and cattle, with other creatures that, when living,
were fubfervient to them and added to their pleafures, are employed
after their death to decorate the terraces o f their
tombs.
** Quae gratia currum
“ Armorumque fuit vivis, quas cura nitentes
“ Pafcere equos, eadem fequitur tellure repoftos.” Virgil, Asneid vi.
“ Thofe pleaiing cares the heroes felt, alive,
“ For chariots, fteeds, and arms, in death {ury'tve.” P i t t ,
It may be confidered as fuperfluous, after what has been faid,
to obferve, that no branch o f natural philofophy is made a
ftudy, or a purfuit in China. The pra£tical application o f
fome o f the mod obvious effe£ts produced by natural caufes
could not efcape the obfervation o f a people who had, at an
early period, attained fo high a degree o f civilization, but, fatif-
fied with the praftical part, they puihed their enquiries no farther.
O f pneumatics, hydroftatics, eleitricity, and magnetifm,
they
they may be faid to have little or no knowledge; and their
optics extend not beyond the making o f convex and concave
Ienfes o f rock cryftal to affift the fight in magnifying, or throwing
more rays upon, fmall objedts and, by cpllqdting to a focus
the rays o f the fun, to fet fire to combuftihle fiibftances. Thefe
lenfes are cut with a faw and. afterwards poliihed, the powder
o f cryftal being ufed in both operations. T o poliih diamonds
they make ufe o f the powder o f adamantine fpar, or the corundum
ftone. In cutting different kinds o f ftone into groups o f
figures, houfes, mountains, and fometimes into whole land-
fcapes, they difcover more o f perfevering labour, o f a determination
to fubdue difficulties, which were not worth the fubdu-
ing, than real ingenuity. Among the many remarkable in-
ftances o f this kind o f labour, there is one in the poffeffion o f
the Right Honourable Charles Greville, that deferves to be
noticed. It is a group o f well formed, excavated, and highly
ornamented bottles, covered with foliage and figures, raifed in
the manner o f the antique Cameos, with moveable ring-handles,
Handing on a bafe or pedeftal, the whole cut out o f one folid
block o f clear rock cryftal. Yet this laborious trifle was probably
fold for a few dollars in China. It was bought in London
for about thirty pounds, where it could not have been
made for many times that fum, if, indeed, it could have been
jnacje at all. All their fpe£tacles that I have feen were cryftal
fet in horn, tortoife-ihell, or ivory. The fingle microfcope js
in common life, but they have never hit upon the effedt o f approximating
objeits by combining two or more lenfes, a difco-
very indeed to which in Europe we are more indebted to chance
than to the refult o f fcientific enquiry. I obferved at Ytien-min-
3 . yuen