Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 423

1850.

Notices of Coal in China.

F

385

1st. Because Tien not Sháng ti, is the absolute term by which the Chinese designate this Being, “as a whole and without reference to anything of which it is a part; " while Shángti is merely one of the titles of Tien, which expresses only one single, definite relation that Tien bears to men and all things. This title is therefore unsuitable for rendering Elohim and Theos, because we must use the word by which they are rendered, to speak of Jehovah as he exists in and of himself- e. g. when it is used to speak of his nature, his existence from eternity before there were any creatures to stand in any relation to him, or to express the doctrine of the Trinity; and also, because the Being we call God sustains not one merely, but many relations to us, and therefore the word by which we render Elohim should be an absolute term-the name of the Being viewed as a whole—and not a relative term, which can suggest only one relationship.

2d. Because Shángtí is a compound term, consisting of an ad- jective "Supreme," and a noun "Ruler," and we want a simple, uncompounded word—God. These points will be best discussed under propositions b. and c.

(To be continued.)

ART. II. Notices of Coal in China. By D. J. Macgowan, m. d.,

Cor. Mem. of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

COAL deposits exist to a greater or less extent throughout the different mountain ranges which girt the great Plain of China. On its northern boundary this mineral is met with in numerous localities, on the Celes- tial Mountains, on the Mongolian steppes, and various offsets of the Altai range, the most productive of which are in Shingking and Shánsí. There are several smaller deposits in Chihlí and Corea. Un- skillful mining, and the want of suitable means of transport, enhance the cost of the mineral, and limit its consumption. Except for culinary and manufacturing purposes, it is little used, the inhabitants trusting to furs and skins for protection from the extreme rigor of their winters. The best coal brought to the Capital, is from Pingting chỉu in Shin- sí. Anthracite of good quality is brought from Káichau in Li ́utung. Chinese cosmogonists, drawing on mythology, gravely state, that in one of the Pingting mines the furnace still exists, in which Niúkwá fused stones for repairing holes in the heavens, and that it is the original 49

VOL XIX NO. VIL