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yuen a slight wall was made to convey the idea of a magnificent building, when seen at a certain distance through the branches of a thicket. Sheets of made water, instead of being surrounded by sloping banks, like the glacis of a fortification, were occasionally hemmed in by artificial rocks, seemingly indigenous to the soil. The only circumstance which militated against the picturesque in the landscape of the Chinese was the formal shape and glaring colouring of their buildings. Their undulating roofs are, however, an exception to the first part of the charge, and their projection throws a softening shadow upon the supporting colonnade. Some of those high towers which Europeans call pagodas are well-adapted objects for vistas, and are accordingly for the most part placed on elevated situations."

In sculpture, understood as the art of cutting stone into imitative forms of living objects, the Chinese are extremely defective. Their backwardness in this, as well as in other branches of the fine arts, has been justly ascribed to the little communication they have had with other nations, and the want of encouragement at home, founded on the policy and practice of discountenancing luxury and promoting labour, particularly that which is employed in producing food for man. Their sculptured figures in stone are altogether uncouth in form and proportion; but their deficiency in this respect is in some degree made up by a very considerable share of skill in modelling with soft materials. For this reason it is that their gods are never represented in stone, but in modelled clay. No great anatomical skill is called for on these occasions, as the figures are always pretty fully clothed, and exhibit no such specimens of nudity as abound in the Grecian Pantheon. Still the drapery is generally executed with remarkable truth and effect, and this feature often drew the

attention of those who composed our embassies, in their visits to the various temples which occurred on the route.

It remains only to say a few words relative to the Chinese art of music. On this point Mr. Hüttner, who was attached to Lord Macartney's mission, considered that" their gamut was such as Europeans would call imperfect, their keys being inconsistent, that is, wandering from flats to sharps, and inversely, except when directed by a bell struck to sound the proper notes. The Chinese, in playing on instruments, discovered no knowledge of semitones, nor did they seem to have any idea of counterpoint, or parts in music. There was always one melody, however great the number of performers; though, in a few instances, some of the instruments played in the lower octave, while the rest continued in the upper, and thus approached to harmony." Their instruments are mostly tuned in unison, and they have little or no idea of accompaniments. The antiquity of music in China is proved by its being frequently mentioned by Confucius himself, and the encouragement which he gives to its cultivation might have been expected, in the course of time, to produce something better than the imperfect art which now exists there. They have certain characters to express the name of every note in their very limited scale. These they use in writing down their airs; but whether this mode of notation is indigenous, or whether they obtained it from the Jesuits, is doubtful. It is indeed stated that the Emperor Kâng-hy was much surprised when P. Pereira pricked down the Chinese tunes as they were played, and repeated them afterwards.

Their instruments are very numerous, consisting of different species of lutes and guitars; several flutes and other wind instruments; a squeaking fiddle with three strings; a sort of harmonicon of wires, touched with two slender

VOL. II.

L

slips of bamboo; systems of bells and pieces of sonorous metal; and drums covered with snake-skin. In lieu of catgut, they string their instruments with silk and wire. Many of the Chinese have a ready ear for music, though accompanied by such a bad national taste. The magistrate of the Macao district was on a visit to the writer of this, when, the piano being touched with a Chinese air, called Mooleehwa, of which the music is given in Barrow's Travels, he immediately turned with a look of pleased surprise, and named the tune.

Among the Chinese instruments we must not forget to mention one which emits, as nearly as possible, the tones of the Scottish bagpipe, without the buzzing sound that is produced by the drone of the latter. The melody of the Chinese and Caledonian pipes is so exactly similar, that it has never failed to excite the attention of the Scotch who have visited China; and indeed the recognition has been mutual, for when a Highland piper (who had been taken out in an Indiaman) was sent up to Canton to attend a meeting of the sons of St. Andrew on the national anniversary, the Chinese were no less struck with the picturesque costume of the plaided Gael, than ravished by the strains which proceeded from his instrument. It may be hoped that, in this respect, they evinced a more correct taste than was displayed by one of the sailors on board the same ship with the Highlander. It was on some occasion when the latter, with pistol and dirk at his side, was parading the deck with his pipes, that the unlucky Jack, tempted by the mere spirit of mischief, or willing to lower the inflation of his Scottish shipmate, snatched up a young pig, and, placing it between his right arm and his side, squeezed the poor animal until it emitted sounds as loud at least, if not as musical, as those of the instrument which it thus unconsciously burlesqued.

The action was so irresistibly comic that shouts of laughter echoed through the ship; and the piper would have been provoked to take summary vengeance on the author of the jest, had he not been prevented by the interference of the bystanders.

CHAPTER XX,

SCIENCES.

Three divisions of human knowledge-Contempt for abstract science Optics-Union of astrology with medicine - Scheme of physics — Practice of medicine - Ignorance of native doctors Small-pox and vaccination - Chemistry - Cooking by steam - Distillation - Dispensaries Science of numbers - Geography-Astronomy-Lunar year and cycle - Almanac - Mechanics and machinery — Architec

ture- The arch.

THE Chinese profess to make a general distribution of human knowledge under the three heads of "Heaven, Earth, and Man," and this may appear to some readers not altogether unlike the three-fold division proposed by Lord Bacon, of "God, Nature, and Man." A well-known encyclopædia, in sixty-four volumes, called San-tsae-toohoey, which dates about the end of the sixteenth century, consists of woodcuts, illustrated by letterpress, in the three departments above stated. This work, however, having been the compilation of one person only, and consisting chiefly of plates, is superficial even for the Chinese, and does not contain a full account of their science, such as it is. The character of the book may be partly gathered from the following account of its contents and method of arrangement. Under the head of Heaven, of course comes astronomy, and this includes something of what was learned from the Arabians and Europeans. The department of Earth includes principally their imperfect notions of geography. The third division, that of Man, is by far the most copious. It contains representations of persons

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