Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 53

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Life of Dr. Morrison....

JAN.

"These, my dear Sir, are the thoughts which I have to suggest, on the reasons for attending to Chinese in this country. It is my opinion, that more attention, on the part of Christians generally, to the literature of pagan na- tions which possess any, would facilitate greatly the diffusion of Christian knowledge amongst them. I shall be happy to furnish

I shall be happy to furnish any further explana- tions, either by personal interview or otherwise, that may be in my power.

"Your's sincerely,

"ROBERT MORRISON.".

"To Rev. J. Doaltry. But, "owing to some cause which cannot now be satisfactorily ascertained, he was obliged to relinquish the hope of seeing a Chi- nese professorship instituted in either of the universities;" and the Chinese library was, on the doctor's embarkation for China, com- mitted to the shelves of an upper chamber, whence, it has often call- ed forth our surprise and sorrow, that in England, which boasts of her Cambridge and her Oxford, there was not zeal enough to encou- rage the study of that language, the repositories of which were spread before us, exposed to the corrosion of damp, and the ravages of insects.

j

At length, through the efforts of Dr. Morrison's personal and tried friends, sir G. T. Staunton, and Mr. W. A. Hankey, some 12 years after their introduction into England, a surer and more honorable place was found for these "10,000 volumes," in the building of the University College, London; in. connection with which institution the first Chinese professorship in England has been founded.

To return, however, to the "Memoirs." Dr. Morrison left England a second time on the 5th of May 1826, and with his family reached his former station. During the remaining eight years of his life, he was as laborious as before, adding to the number of his writings for the instruction of the Chinese, continuing his philological labors, aiding his younger fellow-laborers in the study of the language, and, amid many lesser duties and much official work on behalf of the East India Company's factory, commencing a commentary on the Scriptures, and a collection of marginal. references. He was ever diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;" and at last we have seen him sink into the grave. He has gone to his rest, to receive the crown of joy prepared for him; and, while his tomb reminds us of our friend, there are many works which remain to speak his merits, of each of which it may be written, (as was written by a friend, for a private tablet, of the version of the Sacred Scrip tures :)

"Moriensque reliquit,

Patronis honorem, Patriæ decus,

Genti humanæ lucrum."