EXTEMPORE LINES ON THE DEATH OF A LITTLE BOY. THE subject of these lines was the son of poor but pious parents. At the early age of four years he exhibited remarkable intelligence, but in his general habits he was not different from his fellow playmates, entering into all their juvenile amusements. A sudden illness terminated fatally, and his resigned but grieved parents, while anxiously ministering to his earthly comfort, blended with fervent prayer, heard their child, after having remained speechless for several hours, distinctly utter " Hallelujah." It was the last sound that passed his lips. Who shall say that it was not called forth by the conscious presence of God? Though brief thy pilgrimage, sweet boy, Thou hast not lived in vain, Thro' thee, as thro' the sires of old, For who, that in thine agony Heard that clear thrilling voice, Would not, amidst despair, uplift His spirit and rejoice? What saw'st thou in thy fever'd dreams, Thro' the dark hours and long? What glories burst to waken all What impulse, triumphing o'er death, And weariness, and pain, Brought to thy lips those words of praise And blessedness again? Was it not that within thy soul God's spirit waxed strong, Bearing it trustfully, and sure, And lovingly along? A vision that dark hour may bring Only to such as thou. Yes, He! whose wakening wrath rejects The proud man, in his pride, Kept watch, young sinless sufferer, Unfailing by thy side, Filling the pure depths of thy thought With an abiding joy, And wafting thy pure soul along MAY, 1845. DD A PEEP AT CHINA. (Continued from p. 266.) CUVIER, as well as many other savans, who deny the high antiquity of some of the eastern people, professed a very moderate esteem for the learning of the Chinese, and he appears to have come to a right conclusion, with his usual good sense and sagacity. What, in fact, can be thought of a nation, who, after having taken long strides towards civilization, suddenly stop short, remaining content with the rudiment of all things-of a people who, after inventing gunpowder, did not know how to use it, (so true it is that the inventors of that agent were great fools for their pains)—of a people who first discovered the use of a magnetic needle in navigation, yet never dared explore the limits of those seas, which wash the shores of their empire-who invented printing, and still remain in the infancy of typography-who date their astronomical knowledge from a time immemorial, yet cannot calculate an eclipse-who speak the most undefined language in the world-who paint nature with the minutest accuracy, yet are totally ignorant of the rules of perspective who possess unrivalled secrets for dying resplendent colours, without the most humble idea of chemical science -who eminently possess the genius of commerce, and cannot make a common addition in arithmetic without the aid of an instrument similar in some respects to the markers of a billiard table-who have beneath their hands every domestic, animal of Europe, splendid fruits and vegetables, yet gratify their gastronomic propensities with earth worms and rotten eggs fried in castor oil-who eat soup and rice with two round sticks-of a people who, to sum up all with a grand total, view the beau ideal of a female foot in the mutilated, twisted, broken, doubled mass of deformity, that is reduced by torture into a pedestal for the Venus de la China? In a moral point of view this people possess no greater claim to esteem, they are voluptuous libertines, hypocrites, liars, perfidious, proud, cowards, thieves, and rogues in all the grades of dishonesty, this latter acquirement is cultivated in all its branches with a success that leaves the Chinese professors beyond all competition with other nations. A Chinese recently visiting France was asked, what he had observed as being the most remarkable thing in that country; he replied, that his astonishment was excited by seeing persons walk many paces without having their pockets picked of their handkerchiefs, a circumstance unknown in China with far less opportunity. If, however, any doubt should exist on this national tact, and its high antiquity in China, hear what the Rev. Father Alvarez Semedo, a Portuguese, says in his Universal History of China, translated in 1667—" It is true they (the Chinese) naturally delight in cheating, and those who buy, as well as those who sell, are marvellously tricked.. I shall give some few instances. They can open the stomach of a partridge, take out all the flesh, and fill it with wooden resemblances of nature, so cleverly as to escape the eye of the purchaser. I have myself thus roasted the skin of that bird stuffed with bits of wood. They can make an old horse look young, and paint him with marks and spots, as if it were his natural coat, this they often do, selecting in that view a proper time of the morning or evening, when there is not sufficient light clearly to betray the artifice." What a simple and patriarchal people! who unite the pastoral virtues with every refinement of metropolitan vices. It is to be hoped that the poor Chinese nation will have their manners improved by an intercourse with civilized creatures. It would not be a trifling benefit to teach them how to use all they have invented, and, above all, to persude them to substitute some other sauce piquante than castor oil. Castor oil! in cookery is a crime the Chinese never can be pardoned. But, in truth, the westerns would have some difficulty in perfecting their pupils, particularly if they should exhibit any remains of their ancient obstinacy, and refuse toto cælo, to conform to the idiom of thei tutors, thereby compelling them to conform with theirs. I cannot imagine a more atrocious punishment than being nolens volens forced to study the Chinese language-only fancy monosyllables amounting to twenty thousand, and which according to the sign that precedes, or follows them-the manner of their being so placed the peculiar intonation of accent-or the clack of the tongue signifies things of the most opposite nature and character. A learned Chinese must posses a memory of forty-men power; or else it may be, that the most learned man of the celestial empire is he who knows most of his alphabet. I will give a few examples of the extraordinary complications of the words of this magnitudinous language. We will take the substantive Wife: that little simple meaning word is capable of one hundred and sixty-nine various acceptations, no modern European scholars do indeed admit that the meaning of wife is sometimes difficult to understand, but Heaven save the mark! the Chinese wife beats ours all to nothing. It signifies a legitimate wife, or the converse, then all the epithets with which this substantive can be accompanied; it also is a bachelor's house, the Alpha of the constellation Lyra, a species of plum tree, and then, in short, a multitude of verbs—to enquire after the health of a wife, or kill a wife—marriage, or death of a wife-to embrace a wife, or beat her, &c. &c., ad infinitum. The word Army (by the bye like itself) may be turned, or moved in one hundred and seventy-six different ways. The verb to turn, or to move, has two hundred and thirty-three significations, among them I shall cite a few as great curiosities: great happiness, time of peace, to prevent the importation of an article of commerce, the dynasty of Han, a shipwreck, immobility, severity, gloomy weather, a strong carrier, to hold up the dress in crossiug a gutter, an inheritance, the art of pounding clay for pottery, an empire governed by a single monarch, the motion of the fish called kin, &c. The word clock has two hundred and twenty-one meanings. The word child, one hundred and thirty-two, among which are the following synonimes—young man, virgin, little rascal, a mountain covered with vegetation, a little statue of Nenuphar, to pay homage to any ones' beauty, to be lighted by the sun, a species of juniper tree, a strong mulberry tree, an osier twig, a heron who has lost its feathers, &c. We will here stop; this little specimen will give an encouraging idea of the dèlices attending students in the Chinese language, and the pleasures of being strangely mistaken, which the European must experience in his tour of China. Suppose he asks for an osier twig and they bring him a bird without feathers; or by the misapplication of the scratch in writing either before or behind, or the proper pronunciation of the word, instead of a young man or an osier twig a modest virgin may be put to the blush. It is indeed a very strange tongue! Time and necessity work miricles; but, as matters now stand, the traveller must either make up his mind to die of starvation, and sleep under the canopy of heaven, or learn to speak the language of the country. Now let us take a peep at Chinese cookery, castor oil always excepted. Here we open a chapter of endless dainties that would satisfy the most fastidious Heliogabalus of modern gastronomers. Such tourists as feel any repugnance at eating worms, fish entrails, catapillers, bird's-nests, flying fish, dried, rasped, and boiled in vinegar, rotten eggs, Japan leather hides, cats, dogs, rats, mice, and porcupine's flesh, may certainly find a great variety, and abundance of fine fish, wild fowl, and poultry of numberless tribes, but no joints of vulgar beef, mutton, or veal at the table of the wealthy mandarins. But may heaven in its mercy guard him from having to do with a well educated host in the mysteries of Chinese (etiquette, for if it be only to reply gracefully to a civil toast, “his health,” he will run some risk of a broken back, or twist of the spine, long after to be remembered. There is indeed a book of ceremonials, published by order of Government, in which these matters are handled with minute precision, but, like everything Chinese, they are not easily understood. The extreme bon ton of drinking healths, at stated periods of a dinner party in high life, is thus dictated, and without the slightest variation, if you wish to show yourself well acquainted with the rules of good breeding. The two persons drinking each others very good health, rise at the same moment of time, take their cups with double handles in their left hand, and place themselves in the middle of the room, then, lifting the cup to their lips, each slowly kisses it, and bends as low to the ground as possible-the lower the inclination the greater the politeness. This evolution is repeated three, six, or nine times, at the pleasure of him who first proposed the health, his friendly shadow has nothing else to do but follow his motions with an attentive eye and immoveable gravity; when he sees him inclined to drink finally he should do the same, if possible at the same critical moment; both parties then turn their cup upside down, to prove satisfactorily that it is completely emptied; after this, another lowly bend, and they return to the enjoyments of the table. But before taking their seats a conflict of civil grimaces, reverences, and gesticulations take place; these also conclude with all the precision of a looking glass reflection, the friends sit down, pop, at the same moment, like automatons, whose springs cease to act in whatever position the puppets are to remain when they are relaxed. It may perhaps be supposed the ceremony is now terminated; one thing more remains to prove the sincerity of your Chinese friend, it is the exchange of empty cups, which puts the finishing touch to good breeding. Now, this mark of politeness "were better in the breach than the observance." Most Europeans think, for the olfactive enjoyment is somewhat deranged with weak stomachs, from circumstances you will find thus explained, under the word hiuro, in any Chinese dictionary: "The odour of a bad fetid breath may be cured by constantly eating large quantities of raw garlic and onions." Now, whether the natives of the Celestial Empire really are all of them troubled with this infirmity, or are devoted amateurs of those sweet-scented remedies, this deponent cannot say, but certes they do all of them exhale their peculiar odours in all their richness. Perhaps at this moment the elegant French Ambassador, M. Lagrénée, and his suite are occupied in exchanging these amiable civilities of Nankin high life at the house of some mandarin of noble button, or some powerful envoyé of his tea-ific master. His Excellency may also think himself fortunate if he or any of his suite return to their quarters with whole skins, after one of these parade dinners, without meeting with the reception given to the Commander Cécille and Captain Cebage, about two years since. These two officers landed in plain clothes with an intention of taking a quiet agreeable stroll in the country, but they had scarcely proceeded many paces before they were surrounded by a multitude of rif-raf, seized, held on the ground, and welcomed by the natives with lusty blows of split bamboo. Imagine the rage of these gentlemen; more jealous of the honour of France insulted in their person, than of their own proper dignity sullied by these long tailed bandits, and smarting pretty severely from a real earnest beating, they resolved to take an ample revenge. Happily for the peace of Europe M. Janeigny, then French Consul at Macao, actively interposed, |