Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 517

1350.

Medhurst's Inquiry.

479

The principal of these works are; a Translation of the Shú King ; Theology of the Chinese; an Inquiry into the Proper Mode of render- ing the word God in translating the Sacred Scriptures into the Chinese language; Reply to an Essay on the same subject; with the transla- tion of two articles from the Thesaurns of K'ánghí, called the Pei Wan Yun Fú. These have been already noticed. The subject of the pre- sent brochure is one of great importance; but the mode of handling it is, in some particulars unsatisfactory-so unsatisfactory indeed as to render it very questionable, whether the "Inquiry,"-extending over some seventy or more octavo pages, will not rather embarrass than facilitate the settlement of the question, (how the two words Ruach and Pncuma) shall be translated. There is in this “Inquiry,” and in some of the other works enumerated above, great confusion, a want of that clear and logical exhibition of all the facts which the question demands. This will appear as we proceed. All we now say must be limited to three or four distinct points, wherein we shall try to show why the volume before us is unsatisfactory.

In the first place, there is it seems to us, something in the animus, pervading the Inquiry, which is not fitted to impress favorably the reader's mind; again and again an asperity is exhibited which is un- called for, and not in good keeping with a spirit of calm and candid inquiry. Of this, however, our Readers will judge as we submit to their consideration two or three quotations, affording illustrations of what we speak. After having proceeded only a little way, on his Inquiry (to page 11) he says:-

“From the above it appears, that Shin when used in the abstract means the living principle, the human soul, mind and spirit, the animal spirits, and the spiritual essence and animation of anything. Its antitheses are body and matter, and its correlates are the grosser and more contracted part of spirit, the spiritual energies, the soul, the mind, thought, intention, will, feelings, disposition, and a man's self, together with abstractedness of mind, mysterious- ness, and inscrutability of intelligence. We conceive that the above mean- ings and applications of the word, for every one of which there is good au- thority, are sufficient to prove, beyond the power of contradiction, that the radical and essential meaning of Shin is spirit. It has been said, that this controversy is a question of evidence: if so, then it is settled, as the above evidence is unquestionable and superabundant."

So, the question is settled. The evidence is unquestionable and superabundant; yet, as if it were not so, the writer proceeds to ad- duce and refer to additional evidence; and again, (on page 19,) holds the following language:-

“We lay claim, therefore, to the word Shin, as the best and most suitable translation of spirit, which the Chinese language affords, in all its senses, except that of wind, to which however it is allied through its correlative