CO129-180 - Public Offices & Others - 1877 — Page 448

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greatest value to be learned from the study of Chinese history, the record of what this multi- tudinous portion of the human race has done and thought. We cannot know humanity as we ought to do, as in these days we feel that we must do, without it.

The existing monuments of Chinese literature go back to a period of more than two thousand years before our era, and with a stamp of genuineness and credibility such as no other ancient literature ex- hibits. They are confined, indeed, to China and Chinese subjects, for until the introduction of Bud- dhism there is almost no indication of contact with other nations. Even subsequently what contact there was hardly affected the political and social condition of the empire. This seclusion of the Chinese from intercourse with other peoples was a serious loss to them, but it simplifies to us the study of them and their literature. We have not to go beyond their own records to understand them; if we had to do so, the task would be appalling.

For about two thousand years we behold the nation existing as a great feudal kingdom, and we have documents extending over a considerable portion of that time, of a most minute and reliable character, exhibiting the events that took place as if they were passing immediately beneath our eyes. Since the overthrow of the feudal system, towards the end of the third century before Christ, and the rise and gradual consolidation of the despotic rule that has since prevailed, the stream of history has rolled on in an ever-widening channel. The events of more than twenty dynasties are related with a fidelity and fullness which the annals of no other nation can

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parallel. In one style of historical composition, as translated by the missionary, J. A. Marie de Moyriac de Mailla, they form a Work of 13 volumes 4to. which was published in Paris about a century ago. Compiled in another style, and bound in our English fashion, they form 55 thick volumes, imperial 8vo.-size,

During all this lengthened national existence the Chinese mind has been active in describing the geography, the industries and arts of the empire, as well as in philosophical speculation, and in the cultivation of poetry and other branches of polite literature. I will not undertake to say what is not to be found in this wide field, or rather in this vast Every now and then one meets with questions of moral and social interest, into which we are still inquiring in Europe, and finds them dis- cussed with a sobriety and good sense that are refreshing.

ocean.

We have made a beginning-more perhaps than a beginning in the exploration and unfolding of the stores of Chinese literature; but it will be long before this is accomplished as it needs to be. This Chair in Oxford will play, I hope, no inconsiderable part in the achievement of the task; but the time is distant when the philosophic thinker, travelling through history, ancient and modern, from Egypt and Europe, on through India, and arriving in China, will have to weep, because there are no more worlds of thought and deeds to be conquered.

The other consideration on which I wish to insist in connexion with the constitution of this Chair is the nature of the Chinese language, and especially of the written language. Whether as spoken or written, it is unique among the other languages of

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