Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 318

280

Letter from A Looker-on.

Diseases of the nervous system...

Cutaneous diseases...

Constitutional diseases..

Diseases of the osseous system.

MAY,

41

70

189

264

594 921

51 45

177 156

Preternatural and diseased growths..

•

Totals.

4001 4504

By the Treasurer's account, Dec. 31st, 1847, there was was a ba- Jance to the credit of the Society, of $4611.31 from which subtract $1107.51, the current expenses for the year 1848, and $975.09, those for 1849; together with a balance of $525.40 due P. Parker as per last Report(in all $2608.60), leaves a balance in the treasury at Canton of 82002.71. Besides these expenses, sums have been paid for medicines and iustruments in New York out of funds of the Society in the hands of Messrs. Olyphant & Son, who hold a balance of between eight and nine hundred dollars.

ART. VI. Letter regarding the word used for God in Chinese. By

A LOOKER-ON.

To the Editor of the Chinese Repository,

SIR,

MAY a Looker-on throw out a suggestion? I read in Locke's Essay on the Understanding (Book III, chap. 9., Art. 5.), these words: "Words having naturally no signification, the idea which each stands for must be learned and obtained by those who would exchange thought, and hold intelligible discourse in any language." Now preaching is the di- vinely appointed means of spreading the Gospel ; if a missionary, there- fore, carefully explains what he meaus by the word, it can not make any great difference whether he use Shangtí or Shin. I greatly doubt whether the strict accuracy of signification sought for in the Chinese language exists in any language, unless it be in the Hebrew, in the one great name Jehovah (which will surely not be excluded from the Chinese Scriptures). I am quite certain that it does not exist in the English, for we find excellent scholars disputing whether the word God is a generic term, a relative term, or a proper name (Query, may it not be all these at different times?), and coming to conclusions so widely different that ordinary readers are rather puzzled to know what to think. If, therefore, we are content, in English, with such uncertainty, may we not also bear with a little in Chinese?