ART IX.-CRITICAL NOTICES.

1. A Dissertation on the Nature and Character of the Chinese System of Writing, in a letter to John Vaughan, Esq. BY PETER S. DU PONCEAU, LL. D., President of the American Philosophical Society, of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, and of the Athenæum of Philadelphia; Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, etc., etc. To which are subjoined, a Vocabulary of the Cochin-Chinese Language, by Father JOSEPH MORRONE, Roman Catholic Missionary at Saigon; with references to plates, containing the characters belonging to each word, and with notes showing the degree of affinity existing between the Chinese and Cochin-Chinese Languages, and the use they respectively make of their common system of writing. By M. DE LA PALUN, late Consul of France at Richmond, in Virginia; and a Cochin-Chinese and Latin Dictionary in use among the Roman Catholic Missions in Cochin-China. Published by order of the American Philosophical Society, by their Historical and Literary Committee. Philadelphia: M'Carty & Davis. 1838.

ANY one who opens for the first time a Chinese book, is struck with the remarkable difference in the writing from that of any other nation. Instead of a multitude of short lines or groups, composed of a small number of letters frequently repeated, he observes a multitude of characters about a quarter of an inch in height, of strange and uncouth forms, arrayed in perpendicular columns, and apparently unconnected with one another. On demanding of even competent persons an explanation of this phenomenon, he will be told, that the Chinese language differs from ours in being not alphabetic, but idiographic; in other words, that these mysterious

characters represent not sounds, but ideas. The character 人

for instance, signifies man, and is pronounced jin; another, means son, and is called tseu. On further inquiry, he would

be told, that the number of such characters in common use was upwards of ten thousand, besides some forty thousand which were either synonymous with these, or else obsolete or technical terms. He would be informed, moreover, that the entire stock of spoken words which serve for the pronunciation of these hieroglyphics, including the varieties of intonation, amounted to no more than fourteen hundred and fifty-five.

The very probable result of these investigations would be an opinion, that unlike other written languages, in Chinese the graphic system was the most important element of the language, and the spoken idiom was to be viewed merely as a useful appendage to it; in short, that as the characters represented ideas alone, and were wholly independent of sounds, they might with equal propriety receive any pronunciation we might choose to affix to them-just as the Arabic numerals are worded differently, though understood alike, among the nations of Europe. Thus, the character

for sun, is pronounced ji, in Chinese, but there seems to be no reason why it should not be worded bo, and if so, why not sol or soleil. From this point it would be easy to jump to the important conclusion, that we had at last discovered the great desideratum of an universal philosophic language, by which men of all nations could communicate with one another in writing-a system by which, as an enthusiastic missionary suggested, but a single version of the Bible would be required for the entire population of the globe. To strengthen the delusion, it was asserted by numerous writers, that the inhabitants of several countries on the borders of China, Japan, Corea, Cochin-China, etc., whose spoken languages differed greatly from one another, were yet able to communicate with one another, and with the Chinese, in the characters of the latter. This fact, attested by eye-witnesses, seemed to settle the question of the superiority of the Chinese system of writing over all others; and, accordingly, most authors who have spoken of this language, appear to have felt a kind of necessity for indulging in ecstacies over its peculiar and unsurpassed excellencies.

Mr. Du Ponceau, the range of whose inquiries has comprehended almost every subject connected with philology, could not allow a fact so important to pass without investigation. The exaggerated claims of the Chinese system inspired him with distrust as being contrary to the deductions of reason, and a careful review of the authorities on the subject convinced him that they were totally unfounded. In a conversatiou with Captain Basil Hall, in 1827, Mr. Du Ponceau took occasion, in reference to some remarks of the former in his Voyage to the Loo Choo Islands-to the effect that the natives of China, Corea, Japan, and Loo Choo, though speaking different languages, understood each other through the medium of common written characters to express to him the contrary opinion which he had formed, and to support it by such arguments as had occurred to him. (Diss. p. 92.) Captain Hall was convinced of his error, and requested from Mr. Du Ponceau a statement of his views in writing, with which the latter readily complied. This statement, in the form of a letter, is published in the appendix to the present dissertation, and contains, in a condensed form, the reasons which led the author to believe that no two different idioms

can possess a written character in common; and, that if the Chinese does really serve as a means of communication for nations of different countries, (which he does not pretend to deny,) it is precisely as the Latin or French in Europe, and the Arabic in the East, subserve the same end—that is, it is acquired as a foreign language, in addition to the proper idiom of each country.

Captain Basil Hall, in his Travels in America, published these conclusions, but without the reasoning that led to them, and, as might have been expected, they were soon warmly assailed; first, in a harsh and illiberal article in the Canton Register for March, 1830, and soon after, more civilly, in the Voyage of Captain Beechy to Bheering's Straits; both writers asserting, from their personal knowledge, the incorrectness of Mr. Du Ponceau's views; and the former (who seems to have been inspired with some of the notions of the zealous missionary mentioned above) winding up his article with an earnest hope, that the fact might not lose its hold on the mind of any christian philanthropist by the arguments of Mr. Du Ponceau; thus, ingeniously managing to give a polemic turn to the discussion.

Matters were in this state when the American Philosophical Society, at the instance of its president, determined upon the publication of two Cochin-Chinese vocabularies, obtained in 1817, by Lieutenant White, from a catholic missionary, Father Joseph Morrone, at Saigon, and by him deposited with the Salem East India Society. The smallest of them appears to be the work of Morrone himself; it contains only three hundred and thirty-three words, to each of which the Cochin-Chinese character is annexed. The other, more voluminous, in Cochin-Chinese and Latin, is by an unknown hand, and wants the native characters. Both will be of great utility, not less to the traveller and missionary than to the philologist. Their publication appeared to Mr. Du Ponceau to offer a favorable opportunity for explaining and defending his opinions on the subject of the Chinese system of writing, and for sustaining them by proofs drawn from a cognate dialect like that of Cochin-China; for if two idioms, both monosyllabic, and very similar in their grammatical construction, could not employ a common written character, it would be evident, a fortiori, that languages polysyllabic and complicated in structure, like the Japanese and Loo Choo, would be altogether out of the question. Mr. Du Ponceau, therefore, procured the assistance of M. De la Palun, French consul at Richmond, a gentleman well versed in the Chinese language, and who undertook to compare each Cochin-Chinese word in the smaller vocabulary with the Chinese word represented by the same character. The result was, that notwithstanding the general similarity of the two idioms, the application of the particular signs was so different as to preclude the idea that words written in the one would be intelligible to a person acquainted only with the

other; in short, that the notion of these two nations' use of a "common written character" was not only improbable from the nature of things, but was utterly unfounded in fact. Fortified with this decisive testimony, Mr. Du Ponceau has taken occasion, in a dissertation prefixed to the vocabulary, to state at length his views, and the grounds on which they were originally based. To follow him, in this brief notice, through an essay of more than an hundred pages, written in a style remarkable for its condensation, or, even to make a synopsis of his general reasoning, would be more than we could properly attempt. We must refer the student to the work itself. It is sufficient to say, that Mr. Du Ponceau does not confine himself to the sober question under review, but has pushed his investigation into several of the most interesting regions of philological inquiry. He devotes a considerable space to the exami nation of the Mexican picture-writing and Egyptian hieroglyphics, and deduces from the researches of Humboldt, Quatremère, and Champollion, many conclusions in confirmation of his views. He urges the necessity of paying more attention to the subject of writing in general, or the various modes by which men have attempted to fix and represent their oral speech in visible characters, and he shows the divisions into which this branch of inquiry would naturally resolve itself.

On the whole, we conceive, that the Philosophical Society could hardly have conferred a more acceptable favor on the students of comparative philology, the number of whom, in this country, is fast increasing, than by the publication of this work; and we have no doubt that it will add much to the distinguished reputation which its author enjoys in Europe, not merely as a linguist, but as a clear and profound reasoner.

2. Incidents of Travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland. By the Author of "Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petræa, and the Holy Land," with a map and engravings, in two vols. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1838.

A GOOD book for summer reading is the above; lively, entertaining, and spirited; keeping the attention agreeably aroused, without tasking the brain too strongly, and written in a style, simple and animated, though not remarkably elegant, nor uniformly correct. The writer possesses many of the traits necessary to make a good traveller. He is shrewd and observant, and with an eye for the picturesque, with a happy flow of animal spirits, disposed to take things by their smooth handle, eating brown bread

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thankfully when he cannot get white, acknowledging gratefully all acts of kindness and attention, and when he has occasion to speak of himself, doing it with naturalness and good taste.

Our author begins his rambles at Missolonghi, and we accompany him through a short excursion in Greece and the neighboring islands, his account of which we read with less interest than any portion of his volumes. This, however, may be ascribed partly to the fact that we are with him here upon more familiar ground, and partly, that Greece is a word of such glory and power, that we can hardly read a traveller's unvarnished account of what he saw, without a feeling of disappointment. Our traveller does not seem himself to be perfectly at ease. His desire to avoid the twaddle of school-boy enthusiasm, and to spare his readers the infliction of any mock heroics, leads him occasionally into something like affectation. and levity, and (apparently) to smother those emotions which it would be no disparagement to him to feel and express. But in spite of these drawbacks, the reader will find much in this portion of his tour, to entertain and instruct him. His account of Scio, and of its unhappy fate and present condition, is full of melancholy interest. His sketch of the intelligent labors of Mr. and Mrs. Hill, American missionaries at Athens, and of their excellent results, is extremely gratifying, and seems to throw the charm of the highest moral beauty over the fallen columns and crumbling ruins of the city of Minerva. We have learned much, too, from him, of the actual condition of Athens; and like him, have been startled with the singular blending of the old and the new, which is to be met there. French coffee-houses by the side of a mouldering temple, of which even tradition has forgotten the origin, and an omnibus running regularly from Athens to the Piræus. Two or three plea sant chapters are given to Smyrna, and Constantinople; and the launch of a huge man of war, at the latter city, under the direction of our countryman, Mr. Rhodes, is described with great vividness and distinctness. From Constantinople, our traveller goes to Odessa, where he encounters a most rigid quarantine. The details which he gives us of life and manners at Odessa, are quite interesting; the more so to us, as we honestly confess that we were ignorant of the wealth, size, and consequence of the place. Here he meets with one of those agreeable incidents, which sometimes so pleasantly diversify the traveller's unsocial path. He finds a countryman at Odessa, high in character and office, who had been twenty years in Russia, and yet retained a lively affection for the land of his birth, and gave a cordial welcome to one of its citizens. From Odessa, he travels by land to Moscow; and the hardships, inconveniences, and vexations of his journey, make us congratulate ourselves that we live in a land of steamboats and railroads. He makes a short stop in Chioff, the ancient capital of Russia, where, probably, no American had ever been before him; and there,