Shanghai' kel ea"
We are somewhat surprised at the faint notice bestowed upon this valuable little work, though we know that the savans of the East are not much in the habit of praising each other; believing no doubt that real excellence, and even useful books will surely make their way in the world by the mere force of their own merits. Yet, for the sake of learners, and those who might overlook the Pocket Dictionary un-
Jess their attention was particularly called to it, we beg leave to say a fow words in its favor.
It is well known that one of the greatest hindrances to the acquisition of even a moderate knowledge of Chinese, is the ponderous dictionaries put into the hands of learners, containing thousands of characters that are obsolete, or rarely if ever used and yot #0 mixed up with those of every day use that the labour of separating them and fixing them in the memory is a Herculean task, requiring years of study—whereas the inbour expended upon a carefully arranged collection of charac-tors would be a long stride in laying the foundation of a thorough knowledge of the Chinese language. And there could be no better introduction and accompaniment to the study of Mr. Wade's official and diplomatic series of books, than this Pocket Dictionary, which contains the radicals of all the characters in the Chinese language, with a well-selected and clearly defined number of characters most used in writing and speaking, arranged under each radical to which they belong. Students often fail in learning a language because they attempt too much at once, overlooking the upward alops by which high and difficult objects are attained; and we consider the Pocket Dictionary one of the surest, most scientific steps to the acquisition of the Chinese language, that we have yet seen.
It is no small attainment to have mastered all the radicals and a fair amount of useful characters under each one, as arranged in this little work; and the assured sense of having accomplished this would be a great stimulant to future progress. Fortunately, the work is so arranged as to leave space and margin for the addition of new characters under each radical, which the student can add as he acquires them (from Mr. Stent's large Dictionary, from Williams, Medhurst, Kang-hi, or from his own teacher); and any one accustomed to study, needs no advice on the importance of miaking some such exertion for himself in mastering the difficulties of a foreign language.
Tt has been said that the book has two defects—Ist, the want of an index; 2nd, that the characters can only be found by a knowledge of the radicals. The author will doubtless care little for such a criticism, or may answer—neither have the dictionaries of Dr. Medhurst and Kang-hi an index, nor can one Gnd an unknown character in either without knowing the radicals, while mine is so much smaller than theirs, and containing only useful characters, that nothing could more facilitate the progress of the learner than turning over the leaves and carefully running through the characters under each radical in order to find the one required. We therefore cordially recommend all who are beginning, or who intend to begin the study of Chi-to use the Pocket Dictionary, which will enable them to begin the study of one of the most difficult of Eastern languages in an orderly, scientific manner, by first mastering the radicals, then the most nseful characters under each; after which their power and combination in phrases and sentences, as used in writing and conversation, will be comparatively easy, and future acquisitions made upon such a well Inid foundation may fairly challenge the of English or Chinese sinologues.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.