inust be given to the emperor of the day, hour, extent, and duration of eclipses, some months before they happen: and the calculation must be made not only for Pekin, but for the capital city of every province. Before the arrival of the Jesuits, the Chinese had some general knowledge of astronomy, and made some observations; but their fondness for such observations was chiefly owing to a superstitious infatuation for astrology. They believe to this day, that every star or planet hath a particular influence on sublunary things, and that it is possible to foretell events by calculating their motions, transits, and aspects. They have their lucky and unlucky days, and pretend to foretell wars, famines, sickness, droughts, good and bad seasons. They have an imperial observatory, of great magnificence, in which five mathematicians are employed night and day, each in a separate department, four to observe the four cardinal points of the compass, and one the zenith. Their attention is also directed to all objects connected with meteorology. The results of their observations are carefully recorded.

Great pains are taken by the Chinese to furnish materials for their history. From time immemorial, persons have been appointed in every city to register passing occurrences. Once in every forty years, these annals are corrected by an assembly of mandarins. A copy of these records, amounting to 668 volumes, was lodged in the regal library at Paris. An abridgment of this immense work, in one hundred volumes, was published in 1703.

The Chinese know but little of geometry. Their arithmetic is mechanical. In their books are laid down rules for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, not by arithmetical characters, from one to nine, but by the help of an instrument which they call swanpan. By this we are told they are able to dispatch any arithmetical operation with more ease, quickness, and exactness, than is generally done either by counters or figures. They are very ignorant of the practical art of navigation, though they boast of their being the first inventors of the mariner's compass. Their shipping is very unfit for long and dangerous voyages. Though they have vessels of all sizes,

yet the very best of them seem only designed for those seas which surround their country, and the rest for sailing on their lakes, rivers, and canals. The former are nothing more than flat bottomed vessels, with two masts. Their sails are of mats, made of bamboo, divided into leaves, which fold and unfold like a skreen, and are joined together by a pole, made also of bamboo. Hitherto they know nothing of the use of the pump, but draw water out with buckets. Their compass is only a box, the rims of which are divided into twenty-four equal parts, corresponding with the different points and winds.

The language of the Chinese cannot be learnt without the labour of several years. The dictionary, compiled by order of the late emperor Kanghi, though printed in a small character, amounted to ninety-five thick volumes, and yet was so short of comprehending the whole language, that it was necessary to add a supplement of twenty-four volumes. The slow progress made by the Chinese in the sciences, is attributed by many to the necessity they are under of spending so much time in learning to read and write their language.

Their way of writing is from the top to the bottom. They begin on the right side, and regularly proceed to the left. Instead of pens they use pencils, which they hold upright, and scarcely suffer their hands to touch the paper. Their ink is a compound of lampblack or oil, mixed with a kind of gum water, which gives it a consistency. Their paper is made of the pulpy substance of the bamboo and cotton shrub, after it is macerated and reduced to soft paste; of the bark of the mulberry tree; the straw of wheat and rice; but their neatest and best paper is made of cotton. The invention of paper in China, according to their account, is prior to the Christian æra. Before that period, in place of writing, they engraved, with an iron tool, upon thin planks of hard wood, or of bamboo. In process of time they wrote with a pencil upon white satin; and after the invention of printing, upon a kind of paper nearly as thick as vellum. The art of printing hath been in use in China from time immemorial, but in a very different manner from that which is common in the United States. The Chinese engrave upon

pieces of wood the whole work they intend to print. They glue each of the leaves of the manuscript on hard wood; then trace out with a graver the strokes of the writing; carve out the characters in relief; and cut down the intermediate part of the wood. Each page of a book therefore requires a separate piece of wood. They sometimes use moveable wooden characters; but their alphabet is so numerous, that this can only be done in very small works. They do not use heavy forcing presses as the Americans do; but with the help of brushes, and moderate pressure, they can throw off a great number of copies in a day. It is not improbable that the European inventor of printing took the first hints of his discovery from the Chinese; his early essays being exactly after their manner, by wooden planks, with the same kind of ink, and only on one side of the paper.

OF THE AGRICULTURE, SILK MANUFACTURE, CHINA WARE, JAPAN, VARNISH, AND OTHER INFERIOR ARTS OF THE CHINESE.

In honour of agriculture, every new emperor, immediately after his coronation, and every year afterwards, lays aside his imperial robes, and clothes himself in the habit of a common ploughman. In this humble dress, he proceeds, with his numerous retinue, to a spot of ground kept for the purpose. Here he finds a plough, finely varnished and gilt, to which two oxen, with gilded horns, are yoked; and taking the plough in his hand, drives it the length of two or three furrows. The princes do the same in succession, and after them the presidents. The emperor then throws into the earth wheat, rice, millet, and beans. Dresses are given to the labourers, and forty aged spectators. While the emperor is thus employed, his empress prepares some homely dish for his dinner; brings it to him in the most ordinary vessels; and sits down and eats with him. This ceremony is intended to make a strong impression on the minds of the labouring people, and to encourage their industry.

Agriculture was carried to its present respectable state in

China several centuries ago, and long before it was either studied or understood in Europe. But among the former, in consequence of their aversion to all innovation, it has been stationary; while in the latter it has been constantly and rapidly improving, especially since the middle of the eighteenth century. In China there are many old valuable treatises on agriculture, written prior to any thing of the kind in modern Europe, which, by competent judges, are said to be worth translating into other languages.

In China, the nature and capacity of every kind of soil is thoroughly studied; and such articles planted therein as are most suitable to it. Almost every spot is found useful for something, and is accordingly improved to the best advantage. The Chinese are so unwilling to lose any part of their ground, that neither hedges, ditches, nor trees, are to be found in their corn lands. They generally deprive themselves of the pleasure of flower gardens, fine walks, and such gratifications, that they may make every inch of ground contribute to the public support. They collect and burn the bones of animals, and strew the cinders on ground sown with rice, when it is about a foot high. Lime is used for the same purpose, but only after the grounds have been inundated, and the rice is two feet high. They employ their old men, women, children, and such as are incapable of harder labour, about the streets, public roads, banks of canals and rivers, with baskets tied before them, and small wooden rakes in their hands, to pick up animal manure, and offals of every kind, useful to fructify the earth. These collections are mixed sparingly with a portion of stiff, loamy earth, and formed into cakes, and afterwards sold to the farmers. They construct large cisterns for containing all sorts of vegetable matter, as leaves, roots, or stems of plants, mud from the canals, and offals of animals. With these they mix as much urine as can be collected. The deficiency is made up with common water, till enough is obtained to dilute the whole; and in this state, generally in the act of putrid fermentation, they apply it to the ploughed or broken earth. Whenever," says Mr. Barrow, "our barges halted, and the soldiers or servants found it necessary to step on shore, they

303 were always pursued to their places of retirement by the collectors of food for vegetables. It may literally be said, that in this country nothing is suffered to be lost. The profession of shaving is followed by vast numbers in China. As the whole head is shaved, except a small lock behind, few, if any, are able to operate on themselves. And as hair is considered as an excellent manure, every barber carries with him a small bag, to collect the spoils of his razor." The extraordinary care of the Chinese in collecting and preserving the most trifling materials, that can be converted into manure, may appear to the American agriculturist, in some degree, ludicrous. But it must be considered, that from the comparative scarcity of cattle, manure is exceedingly scarce, and is, consequently, of much greater value; and from the long cultivation of the ground, much more necessary in China than in the United States.

The agriculture of China has long been represented in an imposing point of view; but, from recent information, it does not merit the extravagant eulogiums, of which it has often been the subject. The Chinese are industrious in an eminent degree; but their labour does not always appear to be bestowed with judgment. The instruments which they use, are incapable of performing the operations of husbandry to the greatest advantage. In the deepest and best soils, their plough seldom cuts to the depth of four inches; so that they sow from year to year upon the same soil, without being able to turn up new earth, and to bury the worn out mould to refresh itself. Supposing them, however, to be supplied with ploughs of the best construction, we can scarcely conceive that their mules, and asses, and old women, would be equal to the task of drawing them.* The minute division of property, the poverty of the people, and their want of domestic cattle, are circumstances closely connected; and from these, all the chief defects in the Chinese system of agriculture, seem to proceed. In China, nine-tenths of the peasantry may be considered as cottagers; none of whom have large

* Barrow, p. 566.

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