y other people, ancient or modern. It is
absolutely unique. No other nation except the Japanese has ever borrowed
from it, or mingled any of its elements with its own. It must have
originated from the untutored efforts of a primitive people. Like the
Egyptian tongue, it was at first probably composed of hieroglyphics,
expressing ideas by pictured objects, which in the course of time became
systematized into letters or signs expressive of sounds and words.

[Illustration: A CHINESE CART.]

Though we may dislike the Chinese, it is not wise to shut our eyes to
facts which have passed into history. They have long been a reading and
a cultured people. Five hundred years before the art of printing was
known to Europe, books were multiplied by movable types in China. Every
province has its separate history in print, and reliable maps of each
section of the country are extant. The civil code of laws is annually
corrected and published, a certain degree of education is universal, and
eight-tenths of the people can read and write. The estimate in which
letters are held is shown by the fact that learning forms the very
threshold that leads to fame, honor, and official position. The means of
internal communication between one part of China and another are
scarcely superior to those of Africa. By and by, however, railways will
revolutionize this. Gold and silver are found in nearly every province
of the Empire, while the central districts contain the largest
coal-fields upon the globe. Nearly one-fourth of the human race is
supposed to be comprised within the Chinese Empire. They look to the
past, not to the future, and the word "progress" has apparently to them
no real significance.

In travelling through portions of the country a depressing sense of
monotony is the prevailing feeling one experiences, each section is so
precisely like another. There is no local individuality. Their veritable
records represent this people as far back as the days of Abraham, and,
indeed, they antedate that period. In two important discoveries they
long preceded Europe; namely, that of the magnetic compass and the use
of gunpowder. The knowledge of these was long in travelling westward
through the channels of Oriental commerce, by the way of Asia Minor.
There are many antagonistic elements to consider in judging of the
Chinese. The common people we meet in the ordinary walks of life are far
from prepossessing, and are much the same as those who have