The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1880-11-19
CHINESE WHITING.

- INV th' S"t "S VI NaiHe III PtoBOHI
and especially to some Of our own Al
bany readers. She says that mans im-
agination has invented two systems Of
writing entirely distinct. The ono em-
pioyed among the Chinese is the hero.
glyphic system the other, in actual
use among the enlightened nations of
the globe, bears the name of the alpha
bette or phonetic system
The characters which the Chinese
employ in writing are not letters, prop
erly called, but they are veritablo hier-
oglyphios they do not represent sounds
nor articulations, but ideas. Thus
"house" is expressed by the aid of
single and special charaeter, which
never varies. The Chinese of past
generation may have designated "house,"
IN spoken language, by word totally
different in pronunciation from that
which the i" Nation of the Sun to-day
uses yet the character representing
'.house" remains identical. Tie pro-
nunciation is subject to tho laws of
change, but the hieroglyphic never Is
the result surprising Think of our
figures, which are hieroglyphics. The
idea of unity added seven times to it.
self is expressed in France, England,
Spain, Germany, etc, by the aid of two
CT relies superposed vertically and touch
ing each other at a single point but,
in seeing this ideographic character,
as" the French pronounce it Init the
English, eight the Spanish ocho, and
the Germans acht. All, however, agree
in assigning to it the same value.
II the Chinese ideogruphic characters
were generally adopted, as the Arabic
figures are, every nation could read in
ITS own language the grand productions
of the master minds Of every country
without knowing single word of the
spoken language employed by the au-
thors who wrote them. Were this the
case, English speaking people could pc
rusc with delight the burning thoughts
of Goethe, the beauties of "Jerusalemme
Libe rata" the brilliant wit of Don
Qnixote, the glowing eloquence Of the
''Ex position de Ia Doctrine Catholiaue,' %
by 'PAigle de Meaux," and set not be
subjected to the Inconvenience of learn
ing new dialects and hauling over musty
dictionaries. But a considerable nun
Der Of alPhabetic languages. with all
their peculiarities aud iiioms, NAV be
thoroughly mastered by the same time
and labor spent upon one topographic
language.
Then, too. how infinite the superior
ity Of the alphaLetic system f,r cx-
pressing delicate shades If poetic
thought and abstruse sopbist;ies Of log.
ical reasonines. Thu, ingeuic,, art
paints the word and SPEAKS to the eve.
All the words Of an alphabetic Ian
guage Of tie most extended vocabulary
are composed of elementary sounds or
gcsticulation~. which rcqairc only twen-
/ ty-four or thirty letters to represent
them. BY The all of these characters,
varioualy combined, every word which
strikes. upon the car can be written.
even without knowing its meaning.
The Chinese, or bicroglyplic system,
bears a marked resemblance 20 the in
fancy OF art. In learning mn idco-
graphic character three things are pre-
serted 20 the mind at once-the name
Of the character, It's shape, and what it
represents. The long life g studious
Mandarin is not sufficient to learn to
read the Chinese language But the
process Of acquiring it affords fine
training for the mind. We believe it
was Remusat, that distinguished French
lin guist, whose name recalls one of the
m ost irreparable losses the republic Of
letters has ever sustained, who suggest
ed that We should study the Chinese as
other languages. 2 We study a language
as much for the benefit Of its literature
as for the mental improvement obtained
by the acquisition. Then, as Goethe
says, " lie who knows not foreign
tongues understands not his own" BY
acquiring new languages we have a
more complete command Of our own.
Bnt as the Chinese is not even dis
tant cousin Of our mother English, and
as it can boast of only very limited
humber Of chef Pmurres, the induce
ments to undertake so laborious task
are very few, except for the purpose Of
obeying the Scripture injunction "Go
ye into all the world"
It is not the case, as some, however,
imagine, that the hieroglyphic charac-
ters can only be employed to give ey-
preston to commonplace ideas some
of the pages Of the romance, Yen kiso-
ii, afford living testimony to the fact
that Chinese writing can he the medium
of conveying the most subtitle, the most
critical distractions. Yet, it is far
more difficult to write a science about
r,;nd In AZ In,,..,,.,..l, H.. IL. Il