and as the word spirit was most likely represented by shin in the Chinese author, from whom the statements of Du Halde are supposed to have been taken, it follows that Du Halde sanctions the idea of Tien being a Shin. It has been, however, already admitted, that Tien, or the Divinity, in the estimation of the Chinese, is a Shin, in the sense of spiritual being; in which sense Du Halde also understood the term, if he quoted from a Chinese author, for he repliers it spirit, and not God. The argument therefore, that the ancient Chinese were polytheists, because the Tien whom they originally worshiped was called a Shin, and likewise because the other beings, the fear of whom was afterwards sought to be substituted for the fear of Shangtí, were also called Shin, receives no support from Du Halde, for he considers the term in either case as meaning no more than spirits. From the quotation adduced from Prémare (page 21), we learn that the word Heaven is to be understood in two senses; 1st, the visible heaven which has been made, and 2dly, the invisible heaven which has made, called also the Great Man, or Individual, who is Tái kih, the source and cause of all being; the spiritual 太一 -the unity, reason, &c. Prémare suggests also, that it is to this spirit, as contrasted with the visible and material, that the ancient emperors offered the sacrifices which were due to none but the sovereign God. Here also, because the word spirit in the original (to which Prémare might have referred) was probably represented by Shin, the reader is left to infer that the being of whom these great things are spoken was a Shin. This we have no disposition to deny, but conceive with Prémare, that the word, if used in such connection, is to berende red spirit. Visdelou's remarks (page 22), contain a reference to "the celestial genius appropriate to heaven," and to the genius in the body of the heavens, where it is probable that the term the writer had in view was Shin; but if so, we see that he does not conceive it right to render that term God, but genius. Thus, Du Halde, Prémare, and Visdelou, in the very passages quoted by Dr. Boone, sanction the meaning which has been attached to Shin, in the "Inquiry," and concur in translating it spirit, genius, & c. Dr. Boone then quotes (page 23) from the State and Prospects of China, apparently with the view of showing the inconsistency of the opinions therein put forth, with those sustained by the author of the Inquiry. It is possible, that the public, to whom this controversy' ¡5 submitted, will no altogether admit the propriety of balancing the general remarks of an author at one time, against his sentiments on a particular subject at another; especially, when the subject in question in the meanwhile has undergone a most searching investigation; and views previously taken up by either party may have been, after deliberate inquiry, considerably modified or altered. The first work alluded to was written in a popular style, at a distance from China, without the advantage of reference to native books or teachers, and mainly from previous recollections and impressions. It is not one, therefore, which the author expected to have had brought forward as an authority on a subject under discussion, at a time when the closest attention, for many months, has been given to a single point upon which all the aid from books and teachers that could be procured has been made available. And yet, making allowances for a few slight inaccuracies with regard to the occasional rendering of the word Shin, which the author did not then see, as he does now, should, when occurring in the classics, be uniformly translated spirit, the following extract from the State and Prospects of China will show that in the main, the views then entertained by him were not very different from those now put forth. "But it may be asked, have the Confucians no idea of a spirit, and do they not pay divine honors to invisible beings? To this we may reply, that the learned in China talk largely of spirits and demons, but assign them a very inferior place in the scale of existence. Instead of teaching that the Great Spirit was the former of all things, they hold that spirits are far inferior to the visible and material heavens, and even rank below the ancient sages and modern rulers. Confucius confessed that he did not know much about them, and therefore preferred speaking on other subjects. When one of his disciples asked him how he was to serve spiritual beings, he replied, 'Not being able to serve men, how can you serve spirits?' and when the disciple continued to inquire about the dead, the sage replied, 'Not knowing the state of the living, how can you know the state of the dead?'-His universal maxim was, 'Respect the gods, and keep them at a distance: that is, show them all due honor, but have as little to do with them as possible. It is customary with the Chinese to attach a presiding spirit to each dynasty and kingdom, to the land and grain, to hills and rivers, to wind and fire; while the four corners of the house, with the shop, parlor, and kitchen, of every dwelling, are supposed to be under the influence of some tutelary divinity. To these the sage considered it necessary to pay the accustomed honors, but was decidedly averse to what he called flattering the gods by constant services. Dr. Milne says, that the word Shin should very rarely, if ever, be rendered god, in translating from Chinese books, but rather æon, gods, a spirit, intelligence, &c. How far it can be proper to express the idea of God by the same term when writing for the Chinese, remains a ques tion, which has been long agitated, and is yet undecided.”—-page 161. (To be continued) ART. II. Shower of dust or ashes at Shanghai; examination and report upon it by H. Piddington, curator of the museum of Economic Geology of India. THE specimen of dust subjected to examination was forwarded to Mr. Torrens, the secretary and vice-president of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta by Dr. Macgowan of Ningpo, June 5th, 1846, accompanied by a letter from Mr. Bellott, surgeon of H. M. S. Wolf. In his letter to the secretary, Dr. Macgowan says that Mr. Robertson, surgeon of H. C. steamer Nemesis, then stationed at Ningpo, March 15th, observed similar appearances to those described by Mr. Bellott, the vegetation and parts of the vessel being covered with sand, and the atmosphere misty; while he himself observed nothing of the kind at Chusan. He suggests that the dust came from Mt. Fusi in Japan, but that mountain is not at present a volcano; the volcanoes in K1usiu, in the principalities of Figo and Fizen are more likely to have supplied it. A notice of a shower of ashes is given in the Canton Press of May 23d, 1840, which may be introduced in this connection ; we saw a specimen of that which fell on the decks of the Niantic, and it resembled pounded pumice stone in color and grittiness. "Volcanic Eruptions.-The ship Niantic, Capt. Doty, while on her passage from the Straits of Loinbock to China through the Sulu sea, in lat. 7° 13′ N., and long. 121° E., on the 4th of April, 1840, the wind being N. N. E. to N. N. W. and very light, fell in with a shower of volcanic ashes, very fine and impalpable, which fell for the space of 12 hours, covering the sails and rigging. The stars were obscured from the density of the shower. On the 7th, when in lat. 8° 25′ N., and long. 120° 30′ E., she felt another shower much lighter, which fell from 6 o'clock in the evening till 4 o'clock next morning; wind in the same direction, and light. "On her passage northward, she met a whaler, which experienced a similar shower on the same day, when lying between the islands of Mindoro and Luçonia, nearly 300 miles north of the position of the Niantic. The ashes col. lected from the decks of the Niantic are like those gathered from craters in Java and Sumbawa, and which have been known to be carried 600 or 800 miles. In this instance, they may have proceeded from a volcano in Luoonia, Formosa, or some of the interjacent islands." The report of Mr. Piddington is preceded by Mr. Bellott's letter, both of which we copy from the papers kindly forwarded to us. H. M. SHIP WOLF, Shanghai, March 16th, 1846. MY DEAR SIR,-1 transmit an account of a descent of fine sand that occurred at this place yesterday. On the 15th, the wind was N N En force, No. 1, N E No. 2, E N. E No. 3, N. E. and calm at daybreak; what was considered an ordinary mist was observed; but those officers who walked on shore at the time, noticed their shoes and trowsers to be dusty. This also I experienced in the afternoon. After 8 A. M., dust was perceptible on the guns, on the upper works, and other polished surfaces on deck. I collected as much as possible; on gathering the dust on the finger, and holding it in the rays of the sun, which consequently shone with half its brilliancy, the par ticles glittered, and the sand, although inpalpable between finger and thumb, was gritty between the teeth. The sand passed the ship in light clouds, when the light airs freshened; it was something like smoke, but not of blue color. At 2 P. M., I walked three miles into the country, the whole atmosphere appeared to consist of a light brown dusty colored mist; this was the uniform appearance the whole day. The plants were covered. The sun set, apparently more diminished in his diameter than on a frosty evening, and of a pale white, sickly hue. At 10 P. M., I spread two large newspapers to catch the sand; they were kept spread until half past one mediâ nocte; yet although the sand descended and lay on the guns, none fell on the paper; whether from electric attraction or not, I do not know. The stars, although the sky was cloudless, and Ursa Major in the zenith, were dimly visible; the moon three days past her full was partially obscured, and cast a very faint shadow on my hand; at one mediâ nocte, the moon and stars resumed their usual appearance, and at half-past one the quarter-master observed "it was all over." The Barometer 29.88, from 30 inches.* If you breathed it through the mouth, the sand gritted between the teeth. The entire surface of this district is alluvial clay, without pebble or sand; the nearest sand (coarse and shelly) is 12 miles distant. It was said that the merchantman Denia fell in with this descent of sand 308 miles from any land, in the direction of Lewchew, and also pu nice stone was floating. As I did not see her log, I do not certify this fact. I forward a little of the sand. D. J. Macgowan, Esq. M. D., Ningpo Your's sincerely, J. BELLOTT I should premise that the entire weight of the minute specimen of this dust forwarded to us did not exceed 14 grains, so that all the experiments were performed with less than pin-head specimens, but chemists well know the accuracy with which these microscopic experiments can demonstrate the presence or absence of certain elements, and from the details can judge at a glance if they have been correctly and carefully performed. This is necessarily mentioned, because I could only sacrifice such exceedingly minute assays, and have thus been obliged to refrain from further researches,-as for example, its specific gravity, the proportion of animal to mineral matter, and the hygrometric qualities of the dust, all of which, with many other points, it would be very satisfactory to know. I am in hopes, however, that I shall receive a report, with specimens, under the Admiralty order to H. M. ships on the Eastern station to report on storms in which other meteorological phenomena are, I presume, included. The dust is an olive gray powder, cohering much together, like the scrap So in MSS I presume that what is meant is, that the barometer fell to 29,88 from 30.007-H P ings from a paper filter, and when viewed with the magnifier is evidently mixed with something like hairs of two kinds, black and rather thick white ones. Under the microscope, it is evidently a congeries of very short transparent white, black and brown hairs or fibres, with some reddish, straight spines, and grains of pellucid quartz-like sand adhering amongst them. There was one small grain, like a seed, but hard, which when viewed carefully appeared to be an earthy concretion. I unfortunately lost it, and could not thus try it at the blowpipe. It just grits under the nail on glass, and rubbed between two glass surfaces scratches them but very faintly, felting into a smooth mass from the quantity of fibre. I think the taste is slightly saline, but in the very minute quantity taken can not be sure. Moistened on turmeric paper, it distinctly reddens it, and is thus alkaline, and contains probably the subcarbonate of soda, the commonest of the alkaline salts. 1. Under the blowpipe, on platinum foil: held over the lamp it flames up, the fibres burn with a strong ammoniacal odor, and a gray coherent powder, like pumice, remains. 2. On platinum foil alone, before the blowpipe, this powder fused in the reducing flame but at one point only, and not at the detached portions. The fused part is a bottle-green glass, and when detached is found to have made a little circular hole in the platinum, undoubtedly from an alkali contained in the assay. 3. The fibres, which one would assume to be capillary obsidian, if we supposed the dust volcanic, are not so, but apparently animal, burning up with the common ammoniacal smell and smoke of burnt hair or feathers. 4. On charcoal, the assay burns up as before, leaving a coherent, olivegray, granular mass like pumice, which is infusible. 5. With soda on charcoal, this fuses to a reddish, dark gray, opaque and pearly bead, with violent spitting and throwing up of little globules. 6. When to this bead is added an equal quantity of borax, it fuses on platinum wire to a transparent bright and colorless, but crackly glass, which is slightly green while cooling. As far then, as physical and chemical characters are concerned, we may call our dust a congeries of light downy fibres or hairs with silex adhering to them, and an admixture of an alkaline salt. It appears from Dr. Macgowan's and Dr. Bellott's letters, that the mist and dust certainly extended the same day from Ningpo in about lat. 30° N., to Shánghái in 31° N. (I use round numbers here), which gives ninety miles of difference of latitude, and that it was noticed with light winds from N. N. E. to E. N. E. from 8 A. м. to 1 A. M., or for 19 hours. Now if we take it to have moved only at the rate of 2 miles per hour, as "the sand passed the ship in light clouds," says Dr. Bellott (and this is the slowest rate we can assign to moving clouds), this would give 17X24, or 42 miles in length for it, and without noticing the dif * Probably at one of the minute concretions noted above, and which are not remarked by the naked eye. |