The keys signifying man, sun, gold, metals, a gate or doorfishes, birds, shells, horses, dogs-the head, the feet-a cart or carriage-to walk, to travel, with some others, may be each joined with from three to five hundred characters.

We are now prepared to open the Dictionary. Suppose this

character

occurred, of which we were desirous to know the

name and signification, we should scarcely hesitate in this instance to consider the key to be, koo, mouth. Turning then to the table of the 214 keys, and looking in that column of it under Clefs de trois traits,' we shall soon discover it there with the number 30 immediately under it, (that being its appropriate place in the table,) and under that number the word page 77.' Turning to page 77 we shall accordingly find the commencement of the chapter

chapter in which all the characters are placed that have the key in question as their root or index. At the head of the chapter the key and the explanation stand as under.

30 Clef.

'D

keou

12 Clef de la bouche: bouche.

kevu (1109)

Clavis oris: os, numerale buccellarum. Seng-x, animalia domestica; x-ky, modus proprius loquendi patriæ; y-x, una buccella; ho-x, ostium fluminis; hou-x, ostium lacus; hai-x, maris ostium; kia-x, homines unius domus; ho-tsong-xtchu, ping-tsong--y, infortunia ex ore excunt, morbi per os intrant; chy-x, maledixi.'

The marginal number (1109) is the numerical place of the character in the Dictionary, which is exceedingly useful as a reference to synonims, and also as a ready and convenient reference from a catalogue of Chinese monosyllables at the end of the book to their respective characters in the Dictionary. The letter a is substituted for the marginal word keou to avoid the repetition of it.

We have only as yet, however, turned to the key. We must now count the remaining number of lines and points in the character we are in search of, which in the present instance is seven. Proceeding then to that division of the chapter of characters arranged under the key, which has for its title 7 traits,' we shall find the identical character standing about the 20th from the commencement of this division as under.

唁 Faire un compliment de condoléance à quelqu'un sur

yen

la perte de quelques parens ou d'une dignité.

Aliquem, sive ob dignitatem amissam, sive ob con(1264) sanguineos vitâ functos, invisere et consolari.'

If we should take the literal sense of the two component parts of this character to be the true sense in which it is meant, (the one part being mouth and the other word,) we might infer that compliments of condolence in China were mere mouth words'-but more of this presently. Let us take another example to explain the use of the Dictionary.

Suppose we should meet with these two characters

香

杲

and

whose component parts are precisely the same though

F 2

differently

differently arranged; those parts too, it will be obvious, ar of them keys, the one being je the sun, the other moo wood o looking in the table for the key, we are referred to pag and as the remaining part of the character, moo, ha strokes, we proceed to that division of the chapter of cha under the key je marked ' 4 traits,' and in this division we fin 22 characters, none of which are either of the two charac question. The real key therefore, we may conclude, is not moo; and turning to the page directed in the table of keys the division 4 traits,' (the number in the remaining part of th racter,) we first find

yao (4110)

Grand, obscur.

Amplum, obscurum, profundum, quietum.

As moo is the character which represents the planet Jupi may be presumed that the opposite meanings of those two o ters have some metaphorical allusion drawn from the relative tions of the sun and this planet.

Another example may be sufficient. In this character

we need scarcely doubt that the key is, swee, water. ing then to that key in the table and to that page in the Dict pointed out under the key, and proceeding with the eye till it the division 4 traits,' we shall find our character standi third from the top, as under.

Eaux profondes et étendues, débordement d'eaux dation, surnom.

ouang Aquæ profundæ et amplæ, aquarum exundatio, i (4861) tio: cognomen. x-tchy, lacus; x-yang, mare; dicitur de lachrymas continente.

In this way the discovery of any other character in the Dict is sufficiently simple and easy, provided we are acquainte the key; and though all the keys are printed as they occur top of the page, which alone would be sufficient to guide the to any required character, yet the numeral reference from ea

to the page greatly facilitates the operation. The Dictionary, however, is not so complete as it might have been made. The remaining part of every character, besides the key, should either have been explained immediately after the explanation of the whole character, or by a number referring to some other page, where, as a character, the explanation of this remaining part might be found. This assistance would not only have given additional facility to the learner in acquiring the sense of the characters, but would have contributed greatly to make the study of the language more interesting, as he would then see at once whether the general sense of the character had or had not a relation to its constituent parts.

In the next place as words or sounds are so ambiguous in the Chinese language, it would have been proper, in the illustration of the meaning of characters, by examples of two or three words joined together to give also the written characters of the additional words employed. In the Latin explanation, for instance, of the character, ouang, above extracted, we have no means to discover the separate signification of the word tchy of the compound x-tchy or ouang-tchy, which, collectively, are stated to signify a lake. The vocabulary of Chinese monosyllables at the end of the book will not help us much; for on referring to that Vocabulary we shall find a host of tchys, amounting to no less than 231: they are classed, it is true, into 8 divisions, each having a different mark or accent; but dividing 231 by 8, there will still remain 29 to exercise our doubts which of them to select for reference to the Dictionary; and after all, having referred to the whole 29 characters, we may still doubt which of them is the character in question. Looking for yang in the compound ouang-yang, the sea, in the same example we find 45 yangs, or so many different characters so called; but as one of them singly signifies the sea, we may presume that to be the word in question, and the number under it will direct us immediately to the corresponding character in the Dictionary.

Generally speaking, however, we do not see the least use in this vocabulary of Chinese monosyllables; we are not enabled by them to trace a character from its sound, or to write a character from having its name, which is one great object of a Dictionary. In the present form of M. de Guignes's work, we may, it is true, be enabled to read and translate a Chinese book; but it affords us no assistance to turn any other language into the Chinese character. Had he given us a Latin-or French-Chinese as well as a ChineseLatin-and-French dictionary, the work would have approached nearer to perfection, and have been far more useful.

From the few examples which we have given, it cannot fail to be

E 3

observed

observed that the meaning of the key governs the sense of the character. If this was found invariably to be the case, the Chinese might truly be considered as a philosophical language; as one that approached more nearly than any attempt hitherto made, to an ‘Universal Character,'-in fact, as the only practical system of pasigraphy that promised success. The principle of the structure is, indeed, admirable; but the plan has been sadly marred in the execution. In the first place the greater number of the keys have been ill chosen to represent the roots or indices under which corresponding ideas ought to be classed. They are not such as are suited for a generalization of objects or ideas; such as ought to embrace the grand features of nature, whether animate or inanimate; to represent the leading qualities and circumstances, the actions, passions and affections, so as to shew at a glance the general character of the picture employed-we call it picture, because there are some grounds to believe that in the origin of the language each character was a rude representation of the object intended to be represented. It is however no longer the picture-language of the ancient Egyptians and the Mexicans. Père Amiot, in his letter from Pekin to the Royal Society of London, brings forward a number of ancient characters where the object intended to be expressed is evidently attempted to be represented; as well as some others still in use, in which he thinks the object may yet be traced,—for instance in a man, thus, though the legs only remain. A river, he thinks, may still be recognised in, and fire in 》 》》》, the one being intended to represent waves and the other sparks. The

sun he says was once O, but has been changed, for the sake of

convenience, to; and the moon, which once was

Something too resembling the object is fancied in

to

A.

but more distinctly seen in

a cultivated field; in

a bow,

and in

to shoot with an arrow. Faint as these resemblances

are, they are but few in number, and lead not to any effectual purpose for understanding the language. We shall do much better to consider all the characters as composed of certain conventional marks, out of which 214 have been selected as so many genera,

and