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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
They used instruments of agriculture , and manufactured porcalain and silk at very ancient dates . If these facts are sufficient to prove their earlv civilization , it is equally certain , that ,
haying reached a particular point , they have not progressed , but have remained absolutely stationary . The useful arts are practised now , exactly as they were ages ago . No improvements in machinery , no alterations in fabric , structure , or { node of operation , occur to disturb their unvarying processes . Medicine continues to be little better than a collection of
vague or very absurd theories , anatomy is utterly unknown , surgery never attempted , and doubtless any proposition of the kind would be regarded with unqualified horror . The fine arts , architecture , sculpture , painting , music ' , are all in a very low state , and that state , with a trifling shade of
exception as to portraits painted near the sea-port , the same as it was century upon century since . Poetry here and there bursts forth in words , as if the human heart were impelled , even in China , to breathe out its emotions , incapable Of being utterly smothered . The drama is an universal amusement , but its exhibition seems more to resemble that of the itinerant theatres
at our fairs than any thing else . Though a few of the plays , of which we can judge by means of translations , possess merit as bald , flat , and characteristic pictures of existing manners * to the higher department of the dramatic art , the showing forth human thoughts and passions , brought into action by human motives , they have not the slightest pretension . Trie same may be said of their novels , which are numerous . They describe customs and modes of acting , but do not attempt to enter
irito original character , for good reasons perhaps , or sound the depth ' s ' of the heart . Their language is as singular'as every thing else about them , and a contemplation of its structure might lead to many a comprehensive theory as to their national peculiarities , and by its reaction on themselves appear as one cause of some of the most prominent of their peculiarities . Wfe do not know how to convey any idea of it as concisely or clearly as by a quotation from Mr . Davis .
* ' While the letters of our alphabet are mrre symbols of sounds , the Chinese characters , or words , are symbols of ideas * and alike intelligible to the natives of Cochin China , Japan , Loo-rhoo , and Corea , 'iriili thoie of China itself . The best practical illustration-of a witttov character , common to several nations who cannot nude / stand each other ' s speech , are the Arabic numerals , common to all Koropa . An Itm ^ luhman who could not understand what an Italian uuuint if-lie t # M
ventia < i would com prelit'iui him immediately if . hf * wrote down 33 * This ticivtfiituge , which belong * to our numerals pti ) ly , p « $ rff \ ii ) $ to tjye f ^ hoie language of the Chinese , und ihoae . other nations who u * e the stuntcharacters , without affixing to them the aunie fS rV ^ ri . irtiri ' iit'ftih—Vol . ii . P . U 7 . "
Untitled Article
412 Histories of China .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1836, page 412, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2659/page/20/
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