7th Class. as es is os us [Manchu letters] 8th Class. at et it ot ut [Manchu letters] 9th Class. ap ep ip op up [Manchu letters] 10th Class. au eu iu ou uu [Manchu letters] 11th Class. al el il ol ul [Manchu letters] 12th Class. am em im om um [Manchu letters] The initial characters are represented by respective marks, which being joined to these elementary terminations, generally at the upper extremity, give all the monosyllabic sounds, and the junction of these according to their various combinations all the words in the Mantchoo language. One example will be sufficient to shew the nature of such composition; thus the initials P. T. L. S. F. set before the 12th class of radicals, will stand as follows: Pam Tem Lim Som Fum [Manchu letters] And if each of these syllables be respectively added to the 5th class, they will stand thus: Pamang Temeng Liming Somong Fumung [Manchu letters] Of the state of their literature, and progress in science, I have little to observe. The nature of the language will almost itself determine these points. With respect to any branch of polite literature, or speculative science, little improvement seems to have been made in the last two thousand years. Indeed, there are no works in the whole empire, modern or ancient, that are so much esteemed, so much studied, and I may perhaps add, so little comprehended, as the five classical books collected and commented upon by their great philosopher _Cong-foo-tse_, who lived about 450 years before the Christian æra; and these certainly are very extraordinary productions for the time in which they were written. These works and a few writings of their favourite master, according to the annals of the country, escaped the general destruction of books, when the barbarous _She-whang-te_ ordered all the monuments of learning to be burnt, except such as treated of medicine and agriculture, about 200 years before Christ, for the absurd purpose, as they state, that he might be considered by posterity as the first civilized Emperor which had governed China, and that the records of its history might, by this mean artifice, appear to commence with his reign.