Excerpt from A Handbook of the Chinese Language: Parts I and II, Grammar and Chrestomathy, Prepared With and View to Initiate the Student of Chinese in the Rudiments of This Language, and to Supply Materials for His Early Studies The intention of the author in preparing this work for the press was to make a text-book for students of the Chinese language who attend his lectures at King's College, London, and to assist others who might commence the study of the language in this country, as well as to aid those who enter for the first time upon this study in China itself. In order to Show the need of some such book, it will be necessary fairly to pass in review the various works which are within reach of, or which may be supposed to exist for the student, - to point out candidly what appear to be their defects, and also to note their real value as aids to the study of Chinese. The investigation of Chinese in this country, and even in Europe generally, is but of recent date. The vague expressions collected from the works of the Jesuits on the subject, though correct for the most part in themselves, needed a Jesuit to explain them and to guard the wayward fancy from misinterpret ing them. The. Best rules and the deepest truths are often misunderstood because there is no teacher at hand to purge the idola from the mind and clear it of its earlier prejudices. The colouring of every thing that concerns the Chinese has been heightened by the romantic accounts of this nation given by the early historians of the East, and the imagination has supplied much that was not found in the reality. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.