Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1869-10-16
The Celestial Cline.

China is the type OF permanence in the
world. To say that it is older than any
other existing nation, is saying very
litt1a Herodotus, who has been called
the father of history, travelled in Egypt
about $50 b. G. lie studied its monn-
ments, bearing the names of kings who
were as distant from his time as he is
from ours, monuments which even then
belonged to gray antiquity. But the
Kings who erected those monuments
were posterior to the founders of the
Chinese Empire. Porcelain vessels,
with Chinese notices on them, have
been found in those ancient tombs, in
shape, material, and appearance precisely
like those which are made in China to-
day; and Roselini believes them to have
been imported from China by kings con
temporary with Moses or before him.
This nation and its institutions have out
lasted everything. The ancient Bactrian
and Assyrian kingdoms, the Persian
monarchy, Greece and Rome, have all
risen and fallen, and China continues
still the same. The dynasty has been
occasionally changed but the laws, Gus
toms, institutions, all that makes national
life, have continued. The authentic his
tory OF China commences some 5000
years before Christ, and thousand years
in this history is like century iu that
Of any other people. This oral language
of China has continued the same that it
is now for thirty centuries. The great
wall bounding the empire on the nerth,
which is l,240 miles long, and twenty
feet high, with towers every few hun
dred yards, which crosses mountain
ridges, descends into valleys and is car.
ried over ridges and arches, was built
200 years before Christ, probably to
repel those fierce tribes who, after in
effectual attempts TO conquer China,
travelled westward till they appeared on
the borders of Elrope five hundred years
later; and, under the name of Huns, as
sisted in the downfall of the Roman En-
pire. All China was intersected with
canals at period when none existed in
Europe. The great canal, like the great
wall, is unrivaled by any similar existing
work. 1t is twice the length of the Erie
canal, is from two hundred to thousand
feet wide, and has enormous banks built
of solid granite along great part of its
course. One OF the important mecllani-
cal inventions Of modern Europe is the
artesian well. That sunk at Grenoble
was long supposed to be the deepest in
the world going down eighteen hundred
feet. One at st. Louis, in the United
States, has since been drilled to a depth.
as has recently been stated, of more
than four thousand. But in China these
wells are found in tons of thousands,
sunk at very remote period to obtain
salt water. The method used by the
Chinese from immemorial time has re-
Gently been adopted instead of our own,
as being much moro simple and econo
Rical. Tho Chinese have been long ac-
quafnted with the circulation OF the
blood they inoculated for small pox in
the tenth century; and about the same
time they invented printing. Their
bronze money was made as early rs |, 100 |
Is. g., and its form has not been changed |
since the Christian era. The mariners |
compass, gunpowder and the art OIL
printing were made known to Europe
through stories told by missionaries,
coasting the shores of the Celestial En-
pirs in Chinese junks; saw little box |
containing a magnetized needle called
Ting-nan-Tchen, or "needlc which points
to the south" They also noticed terrible
machines used by tho armies in China.
called Hopao or five guns, into which
was put an inhammable powder, which |
produced noise like thunder and pro-
lected stones and pieces of iron with
irresistible force.
Father Hue, in his "Christianity In |
China" says that "the Europeans who
penetrated into China were no less struck
with the libraries OF the Chinese than
their artillery. They were astonished
at the sight of the elegant books printed
rapidly upon plant, silky paper by
means of wooden blocks. The first ed.
tion of the classical works printed in
China appeared in 95s, five hundred
years before the invention Of Gutten.
burgh. The missionaries had, doubtless.
often been busisd in their converts with
the laborieus work of copying manu-
script books, and the simple Chinese
method Of printing must have attracted
thoir attention.
Many other marvellous productions
were noticed, such as silk, porcelain,
playing cards, spectacles, aud other pro,
ducts Of art unknown to Europe. They
brought back these new ideas TO E1-
rope; and from that time says Abel
kemusat, the West began to hold in due
esteem the most populous and the most
anciently civilized OF all the four quarters
OF the wsrld. The arts, the religious
faith, aud the languages Of its people
were studied, and it was even proposed
to establish professorship for the Tartar
language in the University Of Paris.
The werld seemed to open toward the
East; geography made immense strides,
and ardor OF its discovery opened new
vent for the adventurous spirit OF the
Europsans.' AS our own hemisphere
became better knowp, the idea Of anot other
ceased TO appear a wholly improbable
paradox; and in seeking the Zipangon
Of Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus
discovered the New World"
Aaantic Monthly.
To diaDerae n erowd-C CircnIata n snk