tract the canal to the width of about thirty feet. There is not a lock nor, except these, a single interruption to a continued navigation of six hundred miles.

"The cemeteries, or repositories of the dead, exhibit a much greater variety of monumental architecture than the dwellings of the living can boast of. Some indeed deposit the remains of their ancestors in houses that differ in nothing from those they inhabited while living, except in their diminutive size; others prefer a square vault, ornamented in such a manner as fancy may suggest; some make choice of a hexagon to cover the deceased, and others of an octagon. The round, the triangular, the square, and multangular column is indifferently raised over the grave of a Chinese; but the most common form of a monument to the remains of persons of rank consists in three terraces, one above another, inclosed by circular walls. The door or entrance of the vault is in the centre of the uppermost terrace, covered with an appropriate inscription; and figures of slaves and horses and cattle, with other creatures that, when living, were subservient to them and added to their pleasures, are employed after their death to decorate the terraces of their tombs.

Quæ gratia currûm Armorumque fuit vivis, quæ cura nitentes Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos.'

VIRGIL, Eneid vi.

pursuit, in China. The practical application of some of the most obvious effects produced by natural causes could not escape the observation of a people who had, at an early period, attained so high a degree of civilization; but, satisfied with the practical part, they pushed their inquiries no farther. Of pneumatics, hydrostatics, electricity, and magnetism, they may be said to have little or no knowledge; and their optics extend not beyond the making of convex and concave lenses of rock crystal to assist the sight in magnifying, or throwing more rays upon, small objects, and, by collecting to a focus the rays of the sun, to set fire to combustible substances. These lenses are cut with a saw and afterwards polished, the powder of crystal being used in both operations. To polish diamonds they make use of the powder of adamantine spar, or the corundum stone. In cutting different kinds of stone into groups of figures, houses, mountains, and sometimes into whole landscapes, they discover more of persevering labour, of a determination to subdue difficulties which were not worth the subduing, than real ingenuity. Among the many remarkable instances of this kind of labour, there is one in the possession of the right honourable Charles Greville, that deserves to be noticed. It is a group of well formed, excavated, and highly ornamented bottles, covered with foliage and figures, raised in the manner of the antique cameos, with moveable ring-handles standing on a base or pedestal; the whole

cut out of one solid block of clear rock crystal. Yet this laborious trifle was probably sold for a few dollars in China. It was bought in London for about thirty pounds, 04 where

where it could not have been made for many times that sum, if, indeed, it could have been made at all. All their spectacles that I have seen were crystal set in horn, tortoise-shell, or ivory. The single microscope is in common use, but they have never hit upon the effect of approximating objects by combining two or more lenses, a discovery indeed to which in Europe we are more indebted to chance than to the result of scientific inquiry. I observed at Yuen-min-yuen a rude kind of magic lantern, and a came ra obscura, neither of which, although evidently of Chinese workmanship, appeared to wear the marks of a national invention. I should rather conclude, that they were part of those striking and curious experiments which the early Jesuits displayed at court, in order to astonish the emperor with their profound skill, and raise their reputation as men of learning. Of the ombres Chinoises they may, perhaps, claim the invention, and in pyrotechny their ingenuity may be reckoned much superior to any thing which has hitherto been exhibited in that art in Europe.

"A convex lens is among the usual appendages to the tobacco pipe. With these they are in the daily habit of lighting their pipes. Hence the great burning lens made by Mr. Parker of Fleet-street, and carried out among the presents for the emperor, was an object that excited no admiration in the minds of the Chinese. The difficulty of making a lens of such magnitude perfect, or free from flaw, and its extraordinary powers, could not be understood, and consequently not appreciated by them: and although in the short space of four seconds it completely melted down one of their base copper coins, when the

2

sun was more than forty degrees beyond the meridian, it made no impression of surprise on their uninformed minds. The only in, quiry they made about it was, whether the substance was crystal; but being informed it was glass, they turned away with a sort of disdain, as if they would say, Is a lump of glass a proper present to offer to our great Whang-tee? The prime minister, Ho-tchung-tong, in order to convinceus how very familiar articles of such a nature were to him, lighted his pipe very composedly at the fo cus, but had a narrow escape from singeing his satin sleeve, which would certainly have happened had I not given him a sudden push. He seemed, however, to be insensible of his danger, and walked off without the least concern.

"Indeed, in selecting the many valuable presents relating to science, their knowledge and learning had been greatly over-rated. They had little esteem for what they could not comprehend, and specimens of art served only to excite their jealousy, and to wound their pride.

Whenever a future embassy shall be sent to Pekin, I should recommend articles of gold, silver, and steel, children's toys and trinkets, and perhaps a few specimens of Derbyshire spar, with the finest broad-cloth and kerseymeres, in preference to all others; for, in their present state, they are totally incapable of appreciating any thing great or excellent in the arts and sciences.

"To alleviate the afflictions of mankind, and to assuage the pains which the human frame is liable to suffer, must have been among the earliest studies of civilized society; and accordingly, in the history of antient kingdoms, we find the practitioners of the healing art re

garded

garded even to adoration, Chiron, the preceptor of Achilles, and the master of Esculapius, was transferred to the heavens, where he still shines under the name of Sagittarius. Among these

na

tions, indeed, which we call savage, there is usually shown a more than ordinary respect for such of their countrymen as are most skilled in removing obstructions, allaying tumors, healing bruises, and, generally speaking, who can apply relief to misery. But the Chinese, who seem to differ in their opinions from all the rest of mankind, whether civilized or savage, pay little respect to the therapeutic art. They have established no public schools for the study of medicine, nor does the pursuit of it lead to honours, rank, or fortune. Such as take up the profession are generally of an inferior class; and the eunuchs about the palace are considered among their best physicians. According to their own account, the books on medicine escaped the fire, by which they pretend the works of learning were consumed, in the reign of Sheewbang-tee, two hundred years be

In

fore the Christian era; and yet the best of their medical books of the present day are little better than mere herbals, specifying the names and enumerating the qualities of certain plants. The knowledge of these plants and of their supposed virtues goes a great way towards constituting a physician. Those most commonly employed are ginseng, rhubarb, and China-root. A few preparations are also found in their pharmacopoeia from the animal and the mineral kingdoms. the former they employ snakes, beetles, centipedes, and the aurelia of the silk worm and other insects; the meloe and the bee are used for blisters. In the latter, saltpetre, sulphur, native cinnabar, and a few other articles, are occasionally prescribed. Opium is taken as a medicine, but more generally as a cordial to exhilarate the spirits. Though the importation of this drug is strictly prohibited, yet, as I have before observed, vast quantities are annually smuggled into the country from Bengal and from Europe, through the connivance of the custom-house officers."

SINCE

INCE the increased attention which has been given to meteorology, the study of the various appearances of water suspended in the atmosphere is become an interesting and even necessary branch of that pursuit.

"If clouds were the mere result of the condensation of vapour in the masses of atmosphere which

they occupy, if their variations were produced by the movements of the atmosphere alone, then indeed might the study of them be deemed an useless pursuit of shadows, an attempt to describe forms which, being the sport of winds, must be ever varying, and therefore not to be defined.

"But however the erroneous admission

mission of this opinion may have operated to prevent attention to them, the case is not so with clouds. They are subject to certain distinct modifications, produced by the general causes which effect all the variations of the atmosphere: they are commonly as good visible indications of the operation of these causes, as is the countenance of the state of a person's mind or body.

"It is the frequent observation of the countenance of the sky, and of its connection with the present and ensuing phænomena, that constitutes the antient and popular meteorology. The want of this branch of knowledge renders the predictions of the philosopher (who in attending only to his instruments may be said only to examine the pulse of the atmosphere) less generally successful than those of the weather-wise mariner or husband

man.

"With the latter, the dependence of their labours on the state of the atmosphere, and the direction of its currents, creates a necessity of frequent observation, which in its turn produces experience.

"But as this experience is usually consigned only to the memory of the possessor, in a confused mass of simple aphorisms, the skill resulting from it is in a manner incommunicable; for, however valuable these links when in connection with the rest of the chain, they often serve, when taken singly, only to mislead; and the power of connecting them, in order to form a judgment upon occasion, resides only in the mind before which their relations have passed, though perhaps imperceptibly, in review. In order to enable the meteorologist to apply the key of analysis to the experience of others, as well as to record his own with

brevity and precision, it may per haps be allowable to introduce a methodical nomenclature, applica. ble to the various forms of suspend. ed water, or, in other words, to the modifications of cloud.

"By modification is to be un derstood simply the structure or manner of aggregation, not the precise form or magnitude; which indeed varies every moment in most clouds. The principal modifications are commonly as distinguishable from each other as a tree from a hill, or the latter from a lake; although clouds in the same modification, considered with respect to each other, have often only the common resemblances which exist among trees, hills, or lakes, taken generally.

"The nomenclature is drawn from the Latin. The reasons for having recourse to a dead language for terms to be adopted by the learn ed of different nations are obvious. If it should be asked why the Greek was not preferred, after the example of chemistry, the author answers, that the objects being to be defined by visible characters, as in natural history, it was desirable that the terms adopted should at once convey the idea of these, and render a recourse to definitions needless to such as understand the literal sense, which many more would, it is concluded, in Latin than in Greek words.

"There are three simple and distinct modifications, in any one of which the aggregate of minute drops called a cloud may be formed, increase to its greatest extent, and finally decrease and disappear.

"But the same aggregate which has been formed in one modifica tion, upon a change in the attendant circumstances, may pass into another. ." Or

"Or it may continue a considerable time in an intermediate state, partaking of the characters of two modifications; and it may also disappear in this stage, or return to the first modification.

"Lastly, aggregates separately formed in different modifications may unite and pass into one, exhibiting different characters in different parts, or a portion of a simple aggregate may pass into another modification without separating from the remainder of the mass.

"Hence, together with the simple, it becomes necessary to admit intermediate and compound modifications, and to impose names on such of them as are worthy of notice.

"The simple modifications are thus named and defined:

1. Cirrus. Def. Nubes cirrata, tenuissima, quæ undique crescat. "Parallel, flexuous, or diverging fibres, extensible in any or in all directions.

"2. Cumulus. Def. Nubes cumu. lata, densa, sursum crescens. "Convex or conical heaps,increasing upward from a horizontal base. "3. Sratus. Def. Nubes strata, aque modo expansa, deorsum

"6. Cumulo-stratus. Def. Nubes densa, basim planam undique supercrescens, vel cujus moles longinqua videtur partim plana partim cumulata.

"The cirro-stratus blended with the cumulus, and either appearing intermixed with the heaps of the latter, or superadding a wide-spread structure to its base.

"7.Cumulo-cirro-stratusvel Nimbus. Def. Nubes vel nubium congeries pluviam effundens.

"The rain cloud. A cloud or sy stem of clouds from which rain is falling. It is a horizontal sheet, above which the cirrus spreads, while the cumulus enters it laterally

and from beneath.