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The plates here given, which are beautifully coloured, are copied from correct drawings, made by Chinese artists, representing the different habits and occupations of their countrymen; which the editor procured, he tells us, for the better information of his friends in Europe; and which, at their solicitation, are taken out of his port-folio for the gratification and instruction of the public. They consist of

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32. A Stone-hewer.
33. A Pillow-seller.
34. A Flute-seller.
35. A Ballancer.

36. A Man striking a small Gong
during an Eclipse.
37. A Tinker.

38. A Puppet-shew.
39. A Fishmonger.

40. A Beggar with a Monkey.
41. A Woman embroidering.
42. A Porter with Fire-wood.
43. A Furrier.

44. A Serpent-catcher.
45. A Miller.
46. A Viper-seller.
47. A Shoemaker.
48. A Cotton-clearer.
49. A Basket-weaver.

50. A Fisherman with a Scoop.
51. A Cap-maker.
52. A Female Peasant.
53. A Canister-maker.

54. A Boy with Vegetables.
55. An old Man polishing Crys.

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We have copied this enumeration not so much with the view of exhibiting the contents of this work, as for the sake of imparting to the reader an idea of the various trades and professions (which are mostly ambulant) existing among this wonderful people. The value of the engravings is augmented by

* A man who precedes and clears the way for a Mandarin of Distinction, when he goes abroad.

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the subjoined explanations, though in general they are shorter than we could have wished. As specimens of the merit of this part of the work, we shall extract various articles; beginning with the explanation accompanying the first plate, representing a Mandarin of Distinction.

The dress of a Chinese is suited to the gravity of his demeanour. It consists, in general, of a long vest extending to the ankle the sleeves are wide at the shoulder, are gradually narrower at the wrist, and are rounded off in the form of a horse-shoe, covering the whole hand when it is not lifted up. No man of rank is allowed to appear in public without boots, which have no heels, and are made of satin, silk, or calico. In full dress he wears a long silk gown, generally of a blue colour, and heavily embroidered; over this is placed a sur-coat of silk, which reaches to the hand, and descends below the knee. From his neck is suspended a string of costly coral beads. His cap is edged with satin, velvet, or fur, and on the crown is a red ball with a peacock's feather hanging from it. These are badges of distinction conferred by the Emperor. The embroiderd bird on the breast is worn only by Mandarins high in civil rank, while the military Mandarins are distinguished by an embroidered dragon. All colours are not suffered to be worn indiscriminately. The Emperor and the princes of the blood only are allowed to wear yellow; although violet colour is sometimes chosen by the Mandarins of rank on days of ceremony. The common people seldom wear any other than blue or black, and white is universally adopted for mourning.

In their dispositions the Chinese are mild and humane, carefully avoiding every word or gesture which may betray either anger or any violent emotion of the mind. They entertain the highest reverence for their parents, and respect for the aged. They are enthusiastic admirers of virtue, and venerate the memory of such of their nation -as have been celebrated for a love of justice and of their country. With this singular people, neither riches nor birth can ever establish the smallest claim to honours. Personal merit is the sole basis upon which any man can raise himself to distinguished rank. Talents and virtue are indispensably requisite for those in power; and where they are deficient, every adventitious or hereditary pretension is totally disallowed.'

As connected with literature, we shall now copy the account of the Chinese Bookseller: one of the most copious articles:

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The Chinese have practised the art of printing from time immemorial; but they use no press as the Europeans do. They carve their letters upon blocks of wood; and their paper, being very thin and transparent, will bear printing only on one side: hence every leaf is doubled, the fold being at the edge. They cover their books with a neat sort of pasteboard, of a grey colour; or else with fine satin, or flowered silk. Some are bound with red brocade, interspersed with gold and silver flowers: a manner of binding extremely neat and ornamental. Their books are lettered upon the cover.

The common people have ballads and songs, inculcating chiefly the rules of civility, the relative duties of life, and maxims of morality.

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The Chinese novels are amusing and instructive; they enliven the imagination without corrupting the heart, and are replete with axioms which tend to the reformation of manners by a powerful recommendation of the practice of virtue. Conscious that the political existence of a government depends on the proper regulation of the impulses of nature, the severest penalties are denounced by the Chinese code of laws against all publications unfriendly to decency and good order: the purchasers of them are held in detestation by the greater part of the community; and, with the publishers, are alike obnoxious to the laws, which no rank or station, however exalted, can violate with impunity. The greatest encouragement is given by this extraordinary people to the cultivation of letters, The literati rank above the military, are eligible to the highest stations, and receive the most profound homage from all ranks.

The Chinese has no resemblance to any other dead or living language: all others have an alphabet, the letters of which, by their various combinations, form syllables and words; whereas this has no alphabet, but as many characters and different figures as there are words and changes.

Some of the Chinese paper is made of cotton, some of hemp; other sorts are of the bamboo, of the mulberry, or of the arbutus, which latter is most in use. The inner rind, being reduced, by ma ceration and pounding to a fluid paste, is then placed in frame moulds, and the sheets are completed by drying in a sort of stove.

The ink, commonly called "Indian ink," is made of lamp-black, beat up in a mortar with musk, and a thin size. When brought to the consistence of paste, it is put into small moulds, stamping upon the ink what characters or figures are wanted; and it is then dried in the sun or air.

The Chinese do not use pens, but pencils made with hair, particularly with that of the rabbit. When they write, they have upon their table a small piece of polished marble, with an hollow at one end to contain water; into this they dip their stick of ink, and rub it upon the smooth part, leaning more or less heavily, to proportion the blackness. When they write, they hold the pencil perpendicularly. They write in columns, from the top of the paper to the bottom, commencing on the right-hand side of the margin, and end their books where Europeans begin theirs, whose last page is with them the first. The paper, ink, pencil, and marble, are called " Pau-tșee,” or, "The four precious things,"

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Among the artifices practised by beggars in China, to attract attention and excite compassion, we find a plate and description of a Beggar with a Dog, which is taught to tread on the end of a light board, that, acting as a lever, raises a stone fastened to the opposite end. This stone then falls into a small wooden cup, and thus affords, in miniature, a representation of the mode of beating out rice from the husk. The man receives his alms in a wicker-dish. The mendicants here also adopt a practice followed by other Asiatics, of taming and exhibiting tricks with live serpents. In a plate

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here inserted, is represented one of these miserable wretches, • who carries a live serpent coiled round his neck; the greater part of which he will, for a very small reward, cram, head foremost, into his mouth, allowing any person present to draw it out by the tail. The editor affirms, from his personal knowlege, that this mode of begging, however extraordinary, is practised without the smallest trick or deception.'

In the description of the plate representing a Woman preparing Tea, we are told that;

Tea (tcha) is always presented to a visitor in China, at what ever time of day he may arrive. It is served in porcelain cups with covers, and possesses, in its native clime, a peculiarly fine flavour and scent. It is never drank hot*, neither does a Chinese ever mix it with cream or sugar.

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There is a sort of tea named Pou-Yul-Tchà, from its being cultivated near the village of Pou-Yul, in the province of Yun-Nan. The leaves of this are longer and thicker than the other sorts, and are rolled up with a viscous liquid into a kind of ball, and dried in the sun. This sort bears a good price among the natives; they cut the balls into pieces, and pour boiling water upon them. This tea is not of a very pleasant taste, but it is esteemed very wholesome. Two of its attributed virtues are the curing of the cholic, and the creating an appetite; but perhaps the essential virtues of tea consist in its being an innocent, refreshing beverage, which quenches thirst; and that, supplying the place of inflammatory liquors, the laborious Chinese porter relishes it equally with the most delicate European lady.'

The practice of physic, at least in its subordinate relations seems to be carried on in rather a peculiar manner, according to the following description of an Apothecary:

• Itinerant apothecaries, and venders of drugs, are very numerous in China, who are occasionally either surgeons or physicians, and whose ignorance of prime causes is attended with the same mischievous effects as that of similar practitioners in Europe. The Chinese pretend to discover every disorder by the beat of the pulse, which their physicians feel in various parts of the body. They have much faith in the use of simples, which they recommend as specifics in most disorders. Their druggists have great shops furnished with medicines, and there are fairs where nothing but simples and remedies are sold.-In China, every body is allowed to practise physic: this. privilege, whether granted or connived at by the government, multiplies quacks, of whom the vulgar entertain a very high opinion, and suffer accordingly. It is related, that great sagacity is displayed

• This practice, so different from the European mode, seems to merit our consideration. It is perhaps the hot water which produces the nervous debility attributed by us to tea,The Chinese, on the contrary, drinks all his wine very bat.

by the Chinese in discovering whether a person has died a natural death, or in consequence of some violence, and this even after the body has begun to corrupt. The corps is taken out of the grave, and washed in vinegar. After this, a large fire is kindled in a pit dug on purpose, six fect long, three wide, and the same in depth; this fire is continually augmented, until the surrounding earth becomes as hot as an oven. The remaining fire is then taken from the pit, a large quantity of their wine is poured into it, and it is covered with a hurdle made of osier twigs, upon which the body is stretched out at full length. A cloth is thrown over all, in the form of an arch, in order that the steam may act on it in every direction. At the expiration of two hours this cloth is taken off; and, it is asserted, that if any blows have been given, they will appear upon the body, in whatever state it may be. The same experiment is extended even to bones stripped of their flesh; the Chinese assuring ais, that if the blows have been so severe as to occasion death, this process causes the marks to appear upon the bones, although none of them may be broken or visibly injured.'

The practice of exhibiting the costume or dresses of different nations is far from being new. We have a book printed at Venice two hundred years ago, intitled, Habiti Antichi et Moderni di tutto il Mondo. Di Cesare Vecellio: in Venetia M.D.XCVIII. containing, in a multitude of wooden cuts, the dresses of all nations, with annexed explanations in Latin and Italian; and, since that time, many similar publications have issued from the press. Of late, works of this description have assumed singular elegance; and we do not believe that any are superior to that which is now before us. Indeed, for six guineas, the eye of taste and curiosity has a right to expect the gratification which it will here find.

ART. III. An Account of the regular Gradation in Man, and in dif ferent Animals and Vegetables; and from the former to the latter. By Charles White. 4to. pp. 146. 10s. 6d. Boards. Dilly.

1799.

WE E opened this volume with the expectation of finding some light thrown on a very curious subject of inquiry, but we have been greatly disappointed in the execution of the work. It consists chiefly of well-known passages, selected 'from books which are in the hands of every lover of natural history; and we are sorry to say that the author has been very unsuccessful in his attempts to add to the general stock of knowlege... Much of the preliminary matter relates, indeed, to a subject which no one will now contest with Mr. White. The distinction of natural objects into the three great classes of animals, vegetables, and minerals, is allowed to be arbitrary; and to be only a convenient arrangement for the purposes of perspicuity and celerity, in conversation or writing-but, when

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