Abstract:In the arrangement of our subject, it may perhaps be useful to preserve so much regard to method, as to treat of it separately, under the two following heads: Part I. Versification, or the particular ...In the arrangement of our subject, it may perhaps be useful to preserve so much regard to method, as to treat of it separately, under the two following heads: Part I. Versification, or the particular rules which prevail in the mere construction of lines, couplets, and stanzas; and the sources whence these derive their melody and rythm. Part II. A general view of the style and spirit of Chinese poetry, the character of its imagery and sentiment, and the extent to which it seems to admit of a precise classification, relatively to the divisions and nomenclature adopted in European literature. To such as should find the first portion of our treatise dry and technical in its details, the second may possibly prove more attractive: but the order of discussion could hardly be inverted with propriety.Read More