to Canton, and is employed on a commercial guide. The oldest press in Canton, which has sent forth six volumes of the Register, has united itself with that of the late Courier. The latter paper was discontinued in 1833, and the Register, from the beginning of 1834, has appeared every week, instead of semi-monthly, as formerly. Another press, connected with the American mission, is employed in printing the Chinese Repository. There are also two lithographic presses at Canton. Connected with the college of St. Joseph at Macao, there is a Portuguese press, which is furnished with a font of Chinese moveable types. Among the dialects of the Chinese, there is not the same difference as there is among the languages of Hindoostan. In some instances, they differ very much from the common language of the empire; but often the difference is very slight. In many instances, the chief peculiarities of a dialect are found to consist in the pronunciation. In the northern provinces, the pure Chinese, commonly called the Mandarin dialect, prevails extensively. In districts bordering on Tartary, a modification of the language occasioned by the domination of the Mantchous is apparent. In Chěkeäng and Keängnan the difference between the pure Chinese, (which is there spoken by a very considerable part of the people,) and the local districts is very striking. To an individual who was acquainted with only the standard language, the dialect of Fuhkeen, as it is usually spoken, would be utterly unintelligible. In the south-western provinces there is less deviation from the pure Chinese. The dialect, which prevails in Canton, bears considerable resemblance to that which prevails in the public courts. In Cochin China, Corea, Japan, etc., where the Chinese language is used, the local dialects differ from the standard even more than in Fuhkeën. The Chinese Repository says, "There is not, so far as we know, more than one individual in the United States, who even pretends to have any considerable knowledge of the Chinese language, or has ever undertaken the study of it. A few Chinese volumes may have found their way thither, and lexicographers and philologists have doubtless obtained the principal grammars and dictionaries which have been put forth by European scholars." In the last No. of the Foreign Quarterly Review, there is a notice of several works, which have lately appeared on the inhabitants, and languages of Borneo, Java, New Holland, Sumatra, etc. Since the appearance of this article, the Rev. John Dunmore Lang, D. D. a Scottish clergyman of New Holland, now on a visit to England, has published a View of the Origin and Migrations of the Po 1 lynesian nation. Dr. Lang's theory is, that the South Sea Islanders are of an Asiatic origin, and that the Indo-Americans are sprung from the South Sea Islanders. The points of analogy between the Islanders and the inhabitants of Asia are the distinction of caste, the singular institution of taboo, rite of circumcision, the general appearance and configuration of the idols, etc. In their physical conformation and general character, the natives of the islands strongly resemble the Malays. The identity of the languages spoken in the different groups of the South Sea Islands was observed by Capt. Cook and his fellow voyagers; and the remarkable resemblance between these and those of the Indian Archipelago was also noticed. There is one remarkable peculiarity in the habits of thought among the Indo-Chinese nations, which is also observed among the Malayan and Polynesian tribes, but which, says Dr. Lang, is altogether unknown among the nations, Asiatic or European-to the westward of the Ganges. That remarkable peculiarity consists in their having a language of ceremony or deference distinct from the language of common life. According to the quarterly reviewer, the first point, where we discover evidence of an oceanic language is among the people of Champa, on the shores of the China Sea and of the gulf of Siam. The next traces are found in the island of Formosa, 50 miles from the coast of China. From the Philippines, in all probability, oceanic dialects were communicated to the Pelew and Caroline Islands. The Bugis of Celebes, to the present day, hold a commercial intercourse with the Aru Islands, and the Negritos of New Guinea. Fortune and accident might conduct them to the latitude of westerly winds, which, in due time, would bring them down upon New Zealand, where they (the Bugis) would first discover men of the same race with themselves. The praos of New Zealand might be drifted down by westerly winds as far as Easter Island, and from Easter Island, the trade-winds would drift them, or the inhabitants of the island, upon the Marquesas and the Society Islands; from whence again a voyage seems practicable, even with praos and with the trade winds, to the Sandwich Islands. The great similarity, which exists between the numerals of all these islands, makes this hypothesis, in the opinion of the reviewer, not improbable. A grand objection against referring the South Sea Islanders to an Asiatic origin is derived from the supposed uniform prevalence of the north-east and south-east trade-winds within the tropics." But the testimony of the eminent navigator, La Perouse, is decisive as to the invalidity of such an objection. Westerly winds, says he, are at least as frequent, as those from the eastward, in the vicinity of the equator, in a zone of seven or eight degrees north and south; and the winds in the equatorial regions are so variable, that it is very little more difficult to make a voyage to the eastward than to the westward." Dr. Lang quotes the testimo Af ny of other high authorities on the subject of the trade-winds. ter detailing, at considerable length, the general grounds of his hypothesis, the author comes to particular tests. The first mentioned is, that the species of civilization which prevailed in Mexico and Peru, on the discovery of the continent of America, was essentially Polynesian in its aspect. The second test is a comparison between the Polynesians and the uncivilized aborigines of America, in regard to their manners and customs. A third particular given in proof of the identity of the Polynesian and the Indo-American divisions of the human family is their language. The author then proceeds to consider the supposition that the South Sea Islanders were derived from the continent of America, which, he says, is inadmissible, for two reasons. 1. It implies that the inhabitants of the west coast of America have been a maritime people; which, it is well known, they have never been, and which from the nature of the country they inhabit precludes them from being. 2. It implies that the inhabitants of the west coast of America must not only have been a maritime people, but must have been in the habit of making voyages of discovery and adventure into the Pacific ocean; a supposition utterly preposterous, for though a canoe belonging to Easter Island, might in a western gale, be driven to the American continent, yet a thousand canoes, might have sailed from any point on the west coast of America, on a voyage of discovery, without ever reaching Easter Island. NOTE. Our next No. will contain the conclusion of the translation of Tholuck's commentary on the Lord's Prayer. A few errors in the printing of the first part escaped our notice, owing in part to the impracticability of sending the proofs to the translator, and in part to the fact that the manuscript, owing to an inadvertence, did not reach us till a very late day. The most material errors are the following: Page 218, middle, the sentence beginning "That which the prophets" ends with "the kingdom of Christ." 66 66 222, for APTONEMOTZIAN, read APTONEHIOTZIAN. 225, for Balth, Stalburg, read Balth. Stalburg. 229, line 7th from top, for zoσμεóvνta, read yoyotμevóvta. 229, line 8th from bottom, for Dread D. 66 237, 4th line from bottom, for bread. cult question shall have been answered: In what way, and in To infer from his expression vioлάtwo that he held to this * † Τὸν αὐτὸν θεὸν ἕνα τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ ὄντα, πρὸς τὰς ἑκάστοτε παρατ † Ἡ Μονὰς πλατυνθεῖσα γέγονε Τριάς Athanas. cont. Arian. Orat. § Οὕτω καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ὁ αὐτὸς μὲν ἐστι, πλατύνεται δὲ εἰς υἱὸν καὶ πνεῦ 7 |