medal to be of the highest antiquity.-The fecond medal is of the city of Mitylene, and exhibits the head and the lyre of Apollo.

The third is of the city of Methymna, which contains, on one fide, a head armed with a helmet, and, on the other, an unknown animal. The medals of Chio here engraven are common; one represents a vase, another, two Genii making libations, and a third (which is of gold, and much more rare than the others), a fabulous animal.

ART. IV.

Memoires concernant l'Hiftoire, les Sciences, les Arts, les Maurs, les Ufages, &c.-Memoirs concerning the Hiftory, Sciences, Arts, Manners, Customs, &c. of the Chinese. By the Miffionaries of Pekin. Vols. V. & VI. 4to. Paris. 1780.

*

HE firft Memoir of the fifth volume exhibits a general

Tidea of China, and its first intercourse with Europe. It

was not compofed at Pekin, but at Paris, by an anonymous writer; and its defign is to give the more uninftructed clafs of Readers fuch preliminary notions of different epochas of the Chinese empire, of its revolutions, religion, laws and manners, as may enable them to perufe thefe Memoirs of the Miffionaries with intelligence and profit. The fecond Memoir, which is compofed by the Ex-Jefuit Amiot, one of the moft learned and celebrated of the Miffionaries, is a continuation of the lives or portraits of the more eminent Chinese emperors, empreffes, warriors, minifters, and men of letters, which was begun in the third volume of this work. We have 24 of thefe portraits in the volume before us, though the editors, in their preface, mention only ten. The lines of thefe portraits are sometimes interefting, fometimes whimsical, generally speaking infipid, feldom ftriking or fublime. They are not unpleasant reading: but there are in thefe two volumes other objects that have a fuperior title to our attention.-Thefe biographical portraits fill about 400 pages, which is a space rather too great for their importance.

The remainder of this volume confifts of fome obfervations on the wines, fpirituous liquors, and vinegar of China; on the dried raifins of Ha-mi, and the territory of that little tributary kingdom; on certain remedies; on the manner of dying stuffs in China; on the Apricot tree, and on the Mug-wort. The wine of China is a kind of beer, made of wheat, rice, or rye, into which, when it is boiling, they throw either choice herbs, or fpices, or honey, or fugar, or fruits of different kinds, fresh

For our former accounts of this Work, fee App. to Reviews, Vol. LV. and LIX,,

or dried, from whence the wine derives different names according to the mixture, and is called quince-wine, cinnamon-wine, raifin-wine, and fo forth. The form of the veffels employed by the Chinese to boil and bake, with the vapour of hot water, and the manner of diftilling an aqua vitæ, or gin, from the larger millet, in the northern provinces, and from wild rice or fugar-canes, in the fouthern, are particularly defcribed by our Author. The dried raifins of Ha-mi lead the learned Mionary into a difcuffion concerning the high antiquity of raifins and raifin-wine in China. There are, at prefent, a great number of vines in the provinces of Chan-tong, Ho-nan, Chan-fi, and Pe-tche li; and the later Emperors, and particularly the reigning Prince, has ordered the importation of a confiderable quantity from foreign countries, to fupply the Chinese with a fufficient quantity of fresh and dried raifins, which they eat with pleasure, and often employ medically. The dried raifins of Ha-mi are the most celebrated: they are of two kinds; the one resembling our currants, and frequently employed in medicine; the other, in high request as a table-delicacy, and fuperior in flavour to the fmall grapes in Provence, which are called Paffarilles. Infufions of dried raisins of the first kind are employed in China, as an effectual and excellent method of accelerating the eruption of the fmall-pox, when the weakness of the patient required it: it is also employed to promote perfpiration in certain malignant fevers and pleurifies. Under the article of remedies, the Miffionary mentions two, one of which is inacceffible almoft, on account of the high price and rarity of the ingredients, confifting of rubies, pearls, emeralds, &c. -the other is attainable, and is said to be effectual in bilious apoplexies; it confifts of a pound and a half of spirits (eau de vie forte), aloes, myrrh, and frankincenfe, of each three drams (gros), and faffron half a dram. We pass over his account of the dyers art as it is practifed in China, to mention a word or two of the Apricot-tree, of which there are three kinds in that country, one with double bloffoms, one that bears fruit, and one that is wild. The firft of these three kinds is fubdivided into four, the millefolia, the pale-yellow, the milk-white, and the common, whofe bud appears at first red, and whose flower whitens as it opens and fpreads itfelf. The fruit-bearing apricot-tree is of fix different kinds; that, whose fruit is yellow within, and of an excellent tafte,-that, whofe fruit is white within, and inferior to the former,-that, whofe fruit is fleshcoloured, plump, and excellent,-that of the (houi-hing, whofe fruit is juicy, and of an exquifite perfume; and two more of an inferior quality. There are various rules laid down here for improving the apricot-tree and its fruit; among others, that of grafting it always on a natural stock, i. e. on one of its own

species,

fpecies, and reingrafting on the preceding graft. The wild apricot-tree, of which there are three kinds, is of great use in China; its kernel yields a very good oil, which is ufed in the demands of the kitchen and the table, in place of oil of olive. The peasants warm their ftoves with the remains of the ftone and kernel, and afterwards gather their afhes for manure. As the wild apricot-tree is covered with bloffoms early in the fpring, requires no culture, and grows in the pooreft foil, it. would be a useful addition to our European orchards.

Vol. VI. The first piece we meet with in this volume is an ample and curious differtation, concerning the Music of the Chinefe, both ancient and modern, which is the compofition of the indefatigable Miffionary AMIOT, and which, together with the Preface, Plates, and Index, fills 254 pages. This Difcourse, which has been published apart, with Notes and Illuftrations by the Abbé Rouffier *, and which contains very fin-. gular novelties with refpect to the antiquity and perfection of the Chinese Mufic, will deferve a feparate article; and we propose to give it in a future Review. It turns the tables on M.. de Guignes, and would make us believe, that the effential parts of mufic were discovered in China long before the Egyptians. or the Greeks knew any thing of the matter. But M. de Guignes is a formidable adverfary, being armed with all the offenfive and defenfive weapons (erudition, judgment and languages) that can enable a literary champion to come forth with dignity and fuccefs into this field of controverfy. M. AMIOT'S Piece is, however, curious, profound, and learned: it difcovers an uncommon knowledge of the theory of mufic, but it is also full of cabaliftical erudition, perplexity and mystery. The plates, that ferve to illuftrate it, are numerous; and it contains refearches that discover a more than Herculean labour in the wilds of ancient Chinese literature.

This ftrange piece is followed by an Effay on Sonorous Stones, which, in all ages, have been the most efteemed inftruments of Chinese Mufic. The various kinds of these stones are here particularly described; and this description is not unworthy the attention of the lovers of Natural History.

The next piece we meet with in this volume, is the Extract of a letter from M. AMIOT, dated the 28th of September 1777, and containing Obfervations on the work of Mr. P** (Pau), intitled, Philofophical Inquiries concerning the Egyptians and the Chinefe. This book, which difcovers more wit, capacity, eloquence, and felf fufficiency, than erudition and adequate information, has been fharply animadverted on by the Abbé

*The author of a learned and ingenious work, concerning the mufic of the ancients.

APP. REV. Vol. lxii.

M m

Groffier,

Groffier, and other writers; and though we are inclined to think that Mr. Pau, in entertaining but a mean opinion of the genius, knowledge, and capacity of the Chinese, has rather taken the right fide of the queftion, yet we cannot in conscience defend him against the charge of temerity and exagge ration. Father AMIOT treats him with little ceremony, and nevertheless does not feem inferior to him in the two qualities now mentioned. They appear to us to be both in the wrong, though Mr. Pau feems to exaggerate on the fide of truth. to Amiot's manner, the Reader may judge of it by the following fample: "To fay (as does Mr. P.) that the Chinese are a

barbarous, grofs and ignorant people, without genius, laws, "fciences, arts, or induftry-that they are defcendents of the "Scythians, and received their first civilization, in the twelfth 66 century, from the Mongul Tartars, who conquered their "country, and founded the Dynafty of Yuen, is to affirm an abfurdity of the groffeft kind-it is juft (obferves our Miffionary) as if one fhould fay, that the French are naturally "ftupid, heavy, rough and cruel- that they defcend in a di"rect line from the Hurons, and that it is only fince they have "been fcoured and polished by the Americans, whom they "vifited in the neighbourhood of Quebec, that their manners ૐ are become gentle, and that they have begun to cultivate the arts and fciences." This is pleafantly faid, but the parallel is far from being juft with respect to the Chinese, who are much nearer the Tartars in vicinity and ignorance, than the French are to the Hurons or Iroquois.So much for our Miffionary's witty introduction.

The first object of this controverfy is the population of China. Pau affirms, that the calculation which makes the inhabitants of China amount to 82 millions, is greatly exaggerated. Amiot is fo far from being of this opinion, that he estimates their number at 200 millions. To confirm this eftimate, he produces a lift, made in 1743, of all that paid taxes in the respective provinces, that is, of all the heads of families; and, on fumming up their numbers, he finds 28,516,428 families; in which enumeration, fays he, women, children, and domeftics are not reckoned. The Chinefe reckon, at an average, fix to a family; M. Amiot reduces this computation to five, and on this fuppofition makes the inhabitants of China amount to 142,582,400 fouls. But in this number the Miffionary compre hends neither the grand mandarins, the inferior ones, nor the literati, nor the military, which amount, according to his calculations, to upwards of feven millions, which added to the enumeration above mentioned, make 149,663,000 fouls. Fifty millions are nevertheless ftill wanting to make up the 200 millions, at

which our Miffionary estimates the inhabitants of China. These he finds in the inhabitants of Pekin, which he reckons at two.. millions, the Mantcheou Tartars, who live among the Chinese, the tradefmen, the perfons employed in the filk manufactures, and the populace of the cities, which are not registered. But the computations of M. Amiot are liable to great difficulties, and are certainly arbitrary and uncertain in feveral refpects. He comprehends in his enumeration diftricts, and provinces that belong to Tartary, and not to China; and, he calculates often from registers of the fame diftricts, that are difcordant and contradictory. When it is confidered, that the enumerations of the inhabitants of China have been different under different dynafties, as all the Emperors did not poffefs the fame extent, of territory, that the wars with the Tartars often obliging the Chinese to withdraw in great numbers towards the fouth, rendered certain provinces more populous at one period than they were at another, that the numbers of the poor, the ftraggling, labourers, and of thofe that ply on the rivers, cannot be eafily computed, and that many of the registers are evidently arbi trary; we find ourselves difpofed to fufpend our determination of the controverfy between M. Amiot and M. Pau, relative to the object now under confideration, If population had gone on increasing in China, from the third century before the Chriftian æra (which was the period of their rifing power), the Chinese might have fent into Tartary numerous colonies, which would have peopled that country, and civilized its inhabitants. But this has not been the cafe; and notwithstanding all the pompous relations of the Miffionaries, it is certain, that a bad adminiftration, the extortions and oppreffive conduct of civil and military officers,-the revolutions occafioned by the eftablishment of different dynafties,-famine,-epidemics,-inundations,-wars,-maffacres,-and the fail of great minifters, involving their friends and families in ruin, keep population within certain bounds, and hinder it from rifing to a pitch that, would produce new and fatal revolutions.

With respect to the aftronomy of the Chinefe, M. Pau has affirmed, that they were never capable even of compofing an almanack; that they did not understand the calculations made, for them by the Miffionaries; that in the year 1505, they had no idea either of the longitude or of the latitude of their country, and so on. Our Miffionary oppofes to this charge of ignorance fome scattered facts, which M. Bailli, in his Hiftory of Aftronomy, has proved infufficient to afcertain the aftronomical knowledge of the Chinese; and he concludes this article with a pompous and unfaithful panegyric on the fcience of that people. But what fhocks us really in a particular manner is, his affirming with impudence (pardon the term), that of all M m 2

the