"Those pleasing cares the heroes felt, alive, For chariots, steeds, and arms, in death survive." Pitt. It may be considered as superfluous, after what has been said, to observe, that no branch of natural philosophy is made a study, or a pursuit in China. The practical application of some of the most obvious effects produced by natural causes could not escape the observation of a people who had, at an early period, attained so high a degree of civilization, but, satisfied with the practical part, they pushed their enquiries no farther. Of pneumatics, hydrostatics, electricity, and magnetism, they may be said to have little or no knowledge; and their optics extend not beyond the making of convex and concave lenses of rock crystal to assist the sight in magnifying, or throwing more rays upon, small objects and, by collecting to a focus the rays of the sun, to set fire to combustible substances. These lenses are cut with a saw and afterwards polished, the powder of crystal being used in both operations. To polish diamonds they make use of the powder of adamantine spar, or the corundum stone. In cutting different kinds of stone into groups of figures, houses, mountains, and sometimes into whole landscapes, they discover more of persevering labour, of a determination to subdue difficulties, which were not worth the subduing, than real ingenuity. Among the many remarkable instances of this kind of labour, there is one in the possession of the Right Honourable Charles Greville, that deserves to be noticed. It is a group of well formed, excavated, and highly ornamented bottles, covered with foliage and figures, raised in the manner of the antique _Cameos_, with moveable ring-handles, standing on a base or pedestal, the whole cut out of one solid block of clear rock crystal. Yet this laborious trifle was probably sold for a few dollars in China. It was bought in London for about thirty pounds, where it could not have been made for many times that sum, if, indeed, it could have been made at all. All their spectacles that I have seen were crystal set in horn, tortoise-shell, or ivory. The single microscope is in common use, but they have never hit upon the effect of approximating objects by combining two or more lenses, a discovery indeed to which in Europe we are more indebted to chance than to the result of scientific enquiry. I observed at _Yuen-min-yuen_ a rude kind of magic lantern, and a camera obscura, neither of which, although evidently of Chinese workmanship, appeared to wear the marks of a national invention. I should rather conclude, that they were part of those striking and curious experiments which the early Jesuits displayed at court, in order to astonish the Emperor with their profound skill, and raise their reputation as men of learning. Of the _ombres Chinoises_ they may, perhaps, claim the invention, and in pyrotechny their