MEMOIR OF M. RÉMUSAT.

THE learned orientalist, J. P. Abel-Rémusat, who was torn from science in the prime of life, on the 3d of June last, belonged to a family of Marseilles, known in the history of Provence antecedent to the fourteenth century. He was born at Paris the 5th September 1788. His parents having designed him for the medical profession, he pursued it with success; and although this study would seem to claim the exclusive attention of those who apply themselves thereto, he nevertheless found time to indulge his ardour for the cultivation of oriental languages. Young as he then was, following the impulse of a kind of secret inspiration, relying on his own resolution and encouraged by his own hopes, he devoted himself, in the first instance, to the mysteries of the language and literature of China. What must have been the obstacles with which he had to struggle, denied the aid of grammar or dictionary of this difficult tongue, neither of which then existed in print, and the mean jealousy of the keeper of the oriental manuscripts in the Royal Library prevented him from consulting the unpublished ones in that depository, under the flimsy pretext that all lexicographical and grammatical manuscripts ought to be at the sole disposal of the person entrusted with the printing of the dictionary published by the French government! This impediment was, indeed, a serious one; but it could not repress a spirit so ardent and indefatigable as that of M. AbelRémusat: by comparing with the original texts the translations of Chinese books to be found in Europe,—principally the works of Confucius and Mencius, he succeeded in penetrating the secret of the learned dialect of eastern Asia. With this feeble aid he compiled a Chinese dictionary and a grammar: it must, indeed, be presumed that his progress would have been less rapid, if he had not had an opportunity, in 1811, of procuring a copy of the Latin Chinese dictionary of the French mission at Peking. It was this valuable manuscript, with the dictionaries of the Chinese themselves, which so expeditiously opened to him a full and complete knowledge of this language. Prior to his obtaining this powerful help, he had published (in the same year) his "Essay on the Chinese Language and Literature." This production, coming from a student only twenty-three years of age, yet indicating a sinologist already of the first order, thenceforward fixed upon M. Rémusat the attention of the few persons who cultivated this literature in Europe, and all were eager to commence a correspondence with him. The most illustrious members of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, struck with the extraordinary talents of the young physician, were at the same time filled with alarm at his exposure to the then universal law of conscription, and that a life of so much promise should be risked in a field of battle. The Academy ventured to appeal to the Emperor, and to solicit an honourable exemption in favour of M. Rémusat: the application was complied with, and science, for this reason, as well as for others, incurred an immense obligation to Napoleon.

Our young orientalist, to whom the printed Chinese books in the Paris Library could not be refused, soon perceived the certain advantage which must accrue from the Mandshoo translations of those identical works; and he accordingly applied himself with zeal to the study of the language of the conquerors of China, conjointly with the Chinese. The Mongol and the Tibetan dialects likewise engaged his attention, and he made as rapid a progress in acquiring them as was practicable with the feeble and imperfect means within his reach.

In 1814, at the suggestion of the illustrious Baron de Sacy, a minister who was a patron of the arts, induced Louis XVIII. to found two chairs, of Chinese and of Sanscrit, in the Royal College of France. M. Abel-Rémusat was nominated to the former, which he filled with honour until his death. Taught by his own experience, he felt it to be his duty to facilitate his pupils' acquisition of the Chinese by the publication of a Chinese grammar. This excellent work, which is a model of perspicuity and method, appeared in 1822, and has powerfully contributed to disseminate a knowledge of Chinese throughout the continent of Europe. Two years before, M. Rémusat had published the first volume of his Recherches sur les Langues Tartares. His original intention was merely to give a sketch of the nature of the Mandshoo, Mongol, Turkish and Tibetan dialects, in a small octavo volume; but particular reasons induced him to extend the work, in which he comprehended a variety of very important researches concerning the literature of the nations just mentioned. The second volume, which was to contain the original texts translated in the first, with vocabularies and examples, has never appeared.

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Having been elected a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and BellesLettres, M. Rémusat communicated to that learned body a considerable number of papers, many of which are of the utmost importance; we mention the following only on the Political Relations of Christian Princes with the Mongol Emperors," on the Life and Opinions of the Chinese Philosopher Laou-tsze," and on the Origin of the Chinese Characters." His papers on various questions relative to "the Geography of Central Asia," which were also read before the Academy, are of less value. M. Rémusat was no geographer, and he wanted the requisite materials for comparing the geographical opinions, respecting the state of central Asia, recorded by Chinese authors, with modern information. It must be admitted that he was greatly deceived with regard to the position of Karakorum, the capital of the immediate successors of Chinghiz Khan. In his "Remarks on the Extension of the Chinese Empire towards the West," he has likewise been led into error, by confounding the name of the city of Tharas, on the Syr Daria, with that of the river Talas, in central Asia, which is situated several degrees further to the east. This circumstance has vitiated the whole of his geographical system respecting these countries, by occasioning him to fix too far to the west several places in the north-west of the Chinese empire.

In the Notices et Extraits de la Bibliothèque du Roi, M. Abel-Rémusat has inserted two works of very considerable importance; one is an edition of the Chinese and Mandshoo text of the Chung yung of Confucius, with translations and notes; the other, a complete analysis of the great Chinese and Japanese encyclopædia, published in 1713. The latter exhibits the author not only as a philologist and orientalist, but also as a distinguished naturalist.

The translation of romances, and other specimens of the polite literature of China, into an European tongue, presents difficulties far greater than that of historical or philosophical works. The latter are generally accompanied by excellent commentaries, whilst the romances abound with proverbial and vulgar expressions, and allusions to circumstances or events with which we are unacquainted. These very difficulties offered an attraction to M. Rémusat, and incited him to undertake the translation of the Yuh keaou le, which he published under the title of "The Two Female Cousins." This work, which was executed with surprising ability and spirit, chiefly contributed to make the author known to the world at large, which commonly pays little attention to the productions of philologists and orientalists. If he has, now and then,

fallen into mistakes in his explanation of certain figurative and metaphorical terms, we should attribute these errors to the ignorance which exists in Europe regarding the manners of China, and not to any want of skill or of familiarity with the Chinese language.

It would be tedious to enumerate in this place all the other works published by M. Rémusat; we shall therefore confine our notice to those he has left in manuscript: they are three in number, two of which, unfortunately, are unfinished.

M. Rémusat, so early as 1814, had copied entirely a philosophical dictionary of the Buddhic religion, printed at Peking in five languages, namely, Sanscrit (written in Tibetan characters), Tibetan, Mandshoo, Mongol, and Chinese. He added to the transcript a Latin translation, made, it is true, at a period when it could not be exempt from errors, inasmuch as the true system of Buddhism was not then known, but with our present information it would not be difficult to rectify these errors. It was the author's intention to do this; he wished, moreover, to add an ample commentary to the work; and he contemplated the editing of it conjointly with that learned Indian scholar, M. E. Burnouf, who has applied himself particularly to researches into the subject of the ancient religion and philosophical systems of the Hindus, and who, from his profound acquaintance with the Sanscrit, the Pali, and other dialects of India, would have been able to supply whatever was deficient in M. Rémusat. Such a work, thus executed, would have formed an unerring guide in the labyrinth of Buddhic metaphysics, and removed most of the difficulties which still prevent it from being perfectly comprehended.

The second work left by M. Rémusat is a “Translation of the Fuh kwŏ ke,” or the narrative of the journey undertaken by the bonze Che fă heen and his companions across Tartary, the east of Persia, and Hindustan, in search of the books of the law of Buddha, and to visit the holy places which had been sanctified by the presence of that legislator. This translation is quite complete; unhappily, it is unintelligible without geographical, historical, and philosophical notes, which, executed by the hand of a master, cannot have been more than half perfected by the author. It must be a matter of extreme difficulty to put the finishing stroke to this work, according to its present plan, since it would demand an editor who has gone through the prodigious and toilsome investigations into the subject of Buddhism, which occupied M. Rémusat eight years, and who has acquired all the knowledge he had accumulated. Yet, it may be possible, perhaps, to explain that portion of the text left without a commentary, by short notes extracted from Chinese works and other sources.. It was the intention of M. Rémusat that this work should have been published, by the Oriental Translation Committee, which has announced the work as about to appear under its auspices: it is now supposed that the French government will print it, in its present state, at the royal press at Paris.

The third work left behind by our author is a "Natural History of the Eastern Countries of Asia." Those vast regions have been hitherto concealed from scientific investigations; few travellers have been permitted to visit the interior of China, Japan, and Tartary. The missionaries, to whom we are indebted for such valuable disquisitions on the history and antiquities of those countries, had it not in their power to furnish more than a superficial account of their plants, animals, or minerals. None of those individuals, whom zeal for proselytism heretofore led to China and Japan, had made the natural sciences a special object of study. A few of the travellers, to whom political missions have occasionally opened the avenues of those empires, were better Asiat. Jour.N.S. VOL. 9. No. 34. T

qualified in this respect; but time and opportunity were almost invariably wanting to enable them to form correct ideas respecting the natural history of the eastern portion of the old continent. This grievous blank in our information was apparent in matters which related to geology, the geography of plants, the dispersion of the animal species, but especially in what concerned medicine, rural and domestic economy, agriculture, and commerce. In the dictionaries which we now possess of the Chinese themselves, nearly all the productions of the three kingdoms of nature are designated merely by vague terms, in this manner: name of a tree; name of a plant,-of a stone-of a bird,” &c. M. Rémusat undertook to remedy this inconvenience. In the absence of a thorough exploration of these eastern countries, books and figures, painted and engraved, afforded some information respecting their principal products. The Chinese and the Japanese possess very extensive treatises on natural history. They contain descriptions and frequently figures of all the subjects of the three kingdoms which have attracted the attention of the natives. By combining these two resources, descriptions and plates, we may, in many cases, determine exactly, or at least proximately, the genus and even the species of the object. This was the laborious work undertaken by M. Rémusat, aided by the science of such men as Brown, G. Cuvier, F. Cuvier, Correa de Serra, Jussieu, Petit Thouars, Valenciennes, Walckenaer, &c. In order successfully to accomplish such a work, the first thing to be done was to collect from all the original treatises,-Chinese, Japanese, Mandshoo, Mongol, &c.,-the whole of the denominations; next to determine their synonymes, first with each other, and then with our scientific nomenclatures. This has been done by M. Rémusat; and this portion of his work, classed alphabetically, is completely finished, with the exception of a few branches of zoology, which it would not be difficult to complete. Unfortunately, the original descriptions are not translated; but even without this, the work would deserve to be published, since it would afford the means of understanding Chinese and Japanese works on technology and agriculture, which has been hitherto impracticable, on account of our ignorance of the significations of the names in natural history. The preliminary labours requisite for this great work furnished M. Rémusat with materials for a general sketch of the Chinese system of natural history. It appeared to him the more interesting to examine what had been, in this respect, the march of the human mind in the eastern regions of Asia, because those countries are almost the only ones in the old continent which have not been subjected to the influence, more or less direct, of the method of Aristotle, the common preceptor of most nations in the West and in modern Asia. With the talent and perspicuity which distinguish all the productions of the learned Parisian professor, he has digested his observations in a paper on "the State of the Natural Sciences amongst the Nations of Eastern Asia," which has never yet appeared in print, and which Madame Rémusat, the author's widow, has placed in our hands for publication.*

The first portion of this paper appears in our present number.

MR. ATKINSON'S TRANSLATION OF THE SHAH-NAMEH.* THE Oriental Translation Committee, notwithstanding the many valuable works which they have been the instrument of transferring into English literature from the languages of the East, have not laid the country under greater obligations, than by their patronage of this translation of the Sháh-Námeh. The names of the two most distinguished poets of Persia, Firdausi and Hafez, are familiar enough to the ears of English readers, but their works are almost as little known amongst us as the Zendavesta or the Rig-véda. The truth is that, besides the habitual aversion of Europeans to the study of oriental literature, it must be confessed that its productions are rarely placed before them in a form which is very attractive. Oriental scholars, who are capable of following the wild and eccentrio flights of an Eastern imagination, and of penetrating the immeasurable depths of Persian mysticism, are shocked at versions which are not close and faithful. Yet who can endure poetry transprosed? and how few unite to a just perception of the beauties of the original, the genius and mechanical skill requisite to transfuse those beauties into English verse, which can please the refined and fastidious taste of the present generation? Most of our translations from Persian poetry are either close renderings of the language, in prose, or copies, in verse, which the Persian author would have some difficulty in recognizing as even an imitation of himself.

In venturing upon a translation of Firdausi, there is another obstacle to be encountered, namely, the extreme length of the Shah Námeh. Sixty thousand couplets could not, probably, be rendered into English verse in much less than a quarter of a million of lines, which, reckoning the same number per page as in the work before us, would fill seventeen tolerably thick octavo volumes.

A sense of all these inconveniences induced us to project, a short time back, the publishing in this journal succinct reviews of oriental authors, with occasional translations of remarkable passages, which, we were of opinion, would contribute to render the study of those authors more popular, and enable the English reader to form more just and accurate ideas of the nature and merits of their productions. This scheme we commenced, in our fourth volume, by a review of the Gulistan of Saadi, and a coadjutor was employed in a similar task upon the Shah-Námeh of Firdausí, when the appearance of Mr. Atkinson's work induced him to forego his laborious occupation, inasmuch as Mr. Atkinson has filled up, upon a larger and grander scale, the same outline which he had sketched for his own review.

Not having yet had sufficient time to bestow, upon the work before us, the degree of attention requisite to speak critically upon its merits as a translation, we shall confine our present notice to a brief analysis, in order that the reader may be enabled to form some judgment of it; reserving, perhaps, to a future occasion a more elaborate review.

* The Sháh-Námeh of the Persian poet Firdausí, translated and abridged in prose and verse, with Notes and Illustrations. By JAMES ATKINSON, Esq., of the Hon. East-India Company's Bengal Medical Service. London. Printed for the Oriental Translation Fund, 1832. Murray; Parbury, Allen, and Co.