Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 158

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Notice of the Works of Sú Tungpo.

MARCH,

much to the purpose.

Yet it is really to be regretted, that the best writers never remember, that in order to do good by their lucubra- tions, they ought to write intelligibly. Instead of descriptions and careful relations of things as they happened, we have nothing but a sorry exposition of the most uninteresting events. Could not the astute Sú discover these defects in the historian?

We have now come to his pieces of poetry, upon which a few general remarks will suffice. We have never yet met a single fo- reigner, who has studied this branch of literature, and we have never been acquainted with a single native scholar who could not write poetry. But there exist great difficulties in learning to under- stand Chinese poetry, and many sinologues vote all the rhyming of a whole poetical nation, to be bare nonsense, not worth a moment's consideration. This is a very summary way of settling matters, to which one or two remarks may be appended. Granting that there is much absurdity in Chinese poetry, yet though hundreds of their poets have been fools, there must have been a few amongst the myriads this country has produced, that now and then indited verses not devoid of all meaning. There is one region of realities and another of fancy, the latter exclusively the sphere in which the poet moves, and unless one can follow him to his own domains, he cannot comprehend the things of which he speaks. Our author is by no means remarkable for his high genius in this department, on the contrary he sinks often to the level of prose, and seldom ascends high up on Parnassus. Still he maintains that the proper accompaniment of the harp is wine, and when he can taste a drop of this liquid, it proves to him a nectar that fires his thoughts to soar sublimely, and traverse the empire of the ideal world with an eagle's wing.

Some of the descriptive pieces are tolerably well, but too short, so much so that one regrets, that the author showed no greater ingenui- ty and patience. A few treatises upon the events of his times would have been worth volumes of his miscellaneous lore. Who would think, that a man who had to look after such various affairs, should have found time to study medicine? Such however was the case; and not merely satisfied with a general outline of the science, he enters into minute detail respecting various remedies, especially one for stopping the ravages of dysentery, of which green ginger is the principal ingredient. There occurs also a passage relating to the healing art, which much resembles an explanation of the effects of animal magnetism upon the human body. When all the natural functions are at a stand, and the body has been reduced to a state of