r, etc.--the result partly of the
idea that dissection of the body would maim it permanently during
its existence in the Otherworld. What progress was made was due to
European instruction; and this again is the _causa causans_ of the
great wave of progress in scientific and philosophical knowledge
which is rolling over the whole country and will have marked effects
on the history of the world during the coming century.

Language

Originally polysyllabic, the Chinese language later assumed a
monosyllabic, isolating, uninflected form, grammatical relations
being indicated by position. From the earliest forms of speech several
subordinate vernacular languages arose in various districts, and from
these sprang local dialects, etc. Tone-distinctions arose--_i.e._
the same words pronounced with a different intonation came to
mean different things. Development of these distinctions led to
carelessness of articulation, and multiplication of what would be
homonyms but for these tones. It is incorrect to assume that the tones
were invented to distinguish similar sounds. So that, at the present
day, anyone who says _ma_ will mean either an exclamation, hemp,
horse, or curse according to the quality he gives to the sound. The
language remains in a primitive state, without inflexion, declension,
or distinction of parts of speech. The order in a sentence is: subject,
verb, complement direct, complement indirect. Gender is formed by
distinctive particles; number by prefixing numerals, etc.; cases
by position or appropriate prepositions. Adjectives precede nouns;
position determines comparison; and absence of punctuation causes
ambiguity. The latter is now introduced into most newly published
works. The new education is bringing with it innumerable words and
phrases not found in the old literature or dictionaries. Japanese
idioms which are now being imported into the language are making it
less pure.

The written language, too well known to need detailed description, a
thing of beauty and a joy for ever to those able to appreciate it, said
to have taken originally the form of knotted cords and then of notches
on wood (though this was more probably the origin of numeration than of
writing proper), took later that of rude outlines of natural objects,
and then went on to the phonetic system, under which each character is
composed of two parts, the radical, indicating the meaning, and the
phonetic, indicating the sound. They were symb