Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/100

78 of his life, and expend his talents and energies in seeking such an introduction, and procuring such an edict, would effect, under God, more than Archimedes contemplated, when he speculated upon moving the world.

But the Chinese are not only living under one form of despotic rule, they possess, likewise, one universal language and literature. It is a remarkable fact, that notwithstanding the spoken dialects of each province and county vary so materially, that the Chinese of different districts are absolutely unintelligible to each other; yet, the written medium of the whole empire is easily understood by all, and writing instead of speaking, constitutes the universal method of exchanging ideas. The Chinese written language, being symbolical, and the same symbols being used to designate certain significations, whatever sounds be attached to the character, each instructed person readily understands a book, though he may use a different dialect from the writer. It is remarkable, further, that not only are the same signs employed for certain ideas, in all parts of the country, but the same style is used. The disposal of the characters, as well as the characters themselves, is according to one uniform method; so that a person able to write well, in Chinese, no matter what may be his native dialect, is intelligible to the remotest borders of the empire. Yea, even beyond the limits of Chinese rule, the Chinese character and style are understood, and throughout Cochin-China, Corea, and Japan, the same mode of writing is current and legible. Thus a book, once composed in the customary Chinese style, if intelligible to one learned man, would be intelligible to all; and might travel among the hundreds of