1850.
Medhurst's Inquiry.
481
This fact we shall bring out more fully in the sequel of this notice. Next to that asperity of which we have spoken, in the volume before us, tn the second place, "the question to be solved," is not fairly stated. It is not, "what is the best Chinese term, which, accord- ing to the uses loquendi of that people, is best adapted" to express all the various senses of the word Spirit, given in Johnson; the question is how to translate Ruach and Pneuma; and we can not imagine whit object Dr. Medhurst could have had, in filling three pages with long and irrelevant quotations from an English dictionary, unless he fancied that their array would help to give countenance to the almost inter- minable list of "definitions" and "senses" which he has thought it necessary to attach to Shin.
To this list of definitions and senses of Shin, we will now proceed ; and this is the third particular in which the Inquiry is unsatisfactory. It seems to us that in some instances, if not in many, he has mistaken the description of the attributes, &c., of the Chinese gods (or spirits as he prefers to call them) for definitions of the term shin. It was right, if he pleased, to give us both-viz. the meaning of the word shin, and the nature of the thing designated by that word. But by not properly distinguishing these two, there is not that perspicuity and clearness which the discussion requires. When first reading Dr. M.'s writings on Skin we marked down some of the principal definitions and senses to which he invited our attention; and we here introduce some of them. Animal spirits; Active spirits; Animation; Air [of ease]; Apparition; Mys- terious actings; That which advances and is inscrutable; Beyond compre- hension to bring into contact with invisible beings; Demons; Mischievous demons; Energies of the masculine and feminine principles of nature; Elf, elves, mischievous elves; Essential part; Essence; Essence of China root; Essential qualities; ethereal, ethereal spirit; extraordinary results of moral power; Expanders, celestial expanders; expanders of nature; expanding princi- ple of nature, expanders presiding over prognostics; Those that produce clouds; Fairy, Fairies; Gleam; Genius, Genii ; Ghost, Ghost-like; Images in temples; Invisible beings, Incorporeal not necessarily intelligent; Inscrutable ones, Immateriality; To render inscrutable; Inscrutable and awe-inspiring ; Inscrutably intelligent: Inscrutable wisdom, Inscrutable intelligence. The mind in equanimity; Lares rustici: That which collects and lives; Mien, Marvel, Manes, Mind, Marvelous, Marvelousness; To influence in a myster- ious manner; Mysterious, Mysteriously; Mysteriously intelligent. Inscrutably intelligent and inysterious; Inscrutably mysterious; Mysterious and inscru table; Mysteriousness, Mysterious person; Mysterious and unfathomable; Spirit or something nearly allied thereto (Inquiry p. 20), the idea very close- ly connects it (shin) with materialism; Recondite; Those to whom it is cus tomary to offer sacrifices; shades, spectres, sprites. To shin the Earth, or to honor the Earth with the sacrifices generally paid to the shins, to become spiritual; Soul, soul and finer spirit; soul in mystery; human spirit, spiritual part of inan's nature; spirit, spiritual influences; spiritual beings, spiritual nature, spirituality, expanding spirit; thoughts; Vivacity, Vigor, vigor of thought; Wonderful, Wonderfully.
VOL. XIX NO. IX.
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