to cut off their heads, merely because they would not shave them? But the
Tartars were very cruel to the Chinese.

KNOWLEDGE AND INVENTIONS.--We must allow that the Chinese are very
clever. They found out how to print, and they found out how to make
gunpowder, and they found out the use of the loadstone. What is that? A
piece of steel rubbed against the loadstone will always point to the
north. The Chinese found out these three things, printing, gunpowder,
and the use of the loadstone, before we in Europe found them out. But
they did not teach them to us; we found them out ourselves.

But there are two arts that the Chinese did teach us: how to make silk,
and how to make china or porcelain. And yet I should not say they taught
us; for they tried to prevent our learning their arts; but we saw their
silk and their porcelain, and by degrees we learned to make them
ourselves. A sly monk brought some silk-worm's eggs from China hidden in
a hollow walking-stick.

LANGUAGE.--There is no other language at all like the Chinese. Instead of
having letters to spell words, they have a picture for each word. I call
it a picture, but it is more like a figure than a picture. The Chinese
use brushes for writing instead of pens; and they rub cakes of ink on a
little marble dish, first dipping them in a little water, as we dip cakes
of paint. There is a hollow place in the marble dish, to hold the water.
What do you think the Chinese mean by "the four precious things?" They
mean the ink, the brush, the marble dish, and the water. They call them
precious because they are so fond of writing. Schoolmasters are held in
great honor in China, as indeed they ought to be everywhere. Yet schools
in China are much like those in Turkey, more fit for parrots than
children; only Chinese boys sit in chairs with desks before them, instead