dispose of them. Their paper is thin, but cheap; ten sheets of demy-size costing only one halfpenny. This, connected with the low price of labour, enables the Chinese to furnish books to each other, for next to nothing. The works of Confucius, with the commentary of Choo-foo-tsze, comprising six volumes, and amounting to four hundred leaves, octavo, can be purchased for ninepence; and the historical novel of the three kingdoms, amounting to 1,500 leaves, in twenty volumes, may be had for half-a-crown. Of course, all these prices are what the natives charge to each other; for all which Europeans must expect to pay double. Thus, books are multiplied, at a cheap rate, to an almost indefinite extent; and every peasant and pedlar has the common depositories of knowledge within his reach. It would not be hazarding too much to say, that in China there are more books, and more people to read them, than in any other country of the world.
Another discovery, which is supposed to have originated with the Chinese, is that of gunpowder. Soon after the commencement of the Christian era, this people were in the habit of using what they called "fire medicine," which they employed for the purpose of making signals, and affording amusement, in the shape of rockets and fireworks, but do not appear to have used it to project bullets to a distance, in order to attack an enemy.
The historian of the Yuen dynasty, A.D. 1280, says, that "fire engines" commenced about that period. Wei-ching constructed machines for throwing stones, in which he used powder, made of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal. Some time after this, guns and powder
