Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/141

Rh says the author, as translated by Morrison, "that the people of Fan (i.e., India) distinguished sounds; and with them the stress is laid on the sounds, not on the letters. Chinese distinguish the characters, and lay the stress on the characters, not on the sounds. Hence in the language of Fan there is an endless variety of sound; with the Chinese there is an endless variety of the character. In Fan, the principles of sound excite an admiration, but the letters are destitute of beauty; in Chinese, the characters are capable of ever-varying intelligible modifications, but the sounds are not possessed of nice and minute distinctions. The people of Fan prefer the sounds, and what they obtain enters by the ear; the Chinese prefer the beautiful character, what they obtain enters by the eye."

Within the last few years Western writing has received consideration from at least one native scholar. This author has given a short comparison of it with Chinese, and written of it in a liberal spirit in his little essay, A Plea for the Preservation of Foreign Writing.