The Life of George Borrow [49]
capacity for affairs, although he recognised his skill as a translator.
At first Borrow seems to have found the severity of the winter very trying. "The cold when you go out into it," he writes to his mother (1st/13th Feb. 1834), "cuts your face like a razor, and were you not to cover it with furs the flesh would be bitten off. The rooms in the morning are heated with a stove as hot as ovens, and you would not be able to exist in one for a minute; but I have become used to them and like them much, though at first they made me dreadfully sick and brought on bilious headaches."
There was still at the Sarepta House, the premises of the Bible Society's bankers in St Petersburg, the box of Manchu type, which had not been examined since the river floods. In addition to this, the only other Manchu characters in St Petersburg belonged to Baron Schilling, who possessed a small fount of the type, which he used "for the convenience of printing trifles in that tongue," as Borrow phrased it. This was to be put at Borrow's disposal if necessary; but first the type at the Sarepta House had to be examined. Borrow's plan was, provided the type were not entirely ruined, to engage the services of a printer who was accustomed to setting Mongolian characters, which are very similar to those of Manchu, who would, he thought, be competent to undertake the work. He suggested following the style of the St Matthew's Gospel already printed, giving to each Gospel and the Acts a volume and printing the Epistles and the Apocalypse in three more, making eight volumes in all.
These he proposed putting "in a small thin wooden case, covered with blue stuff, precisely after the manner of Chinese books, in order that they may not give offence to the eyes of the people for whom they are intended by a foreign and unusual appearance, for the mere idea that they are barbarian books would certainly prevent them being read, and probably cause their destruction if ever they found their way into the Chinese Empire." {117a} Borrow left nothing to chance; he thought out every detail with great care before venturing to put his plans into execution.
Although busily occupied in an endeavour to stimulate Russian government officials to energy and decision, Borrow was not neglecting what had been so strongly urged upon him, the perfecting of himself in the Manchu dialect. In reply to an enquiry from Mr Jowett as to what manner of progress he was making, he wrote
"For some time past I have taken lessons from a person who was twelve years in Pekin, and who speaks Manchu and Chinese with fluency. I pay him about six shillings English for each lesson, which I grudge not, for the perfect acquirement of Manchu is one of my most ardent wishes." {118a}
This person Borrow subsequently recommended to the Society "to assist me in making a translation into Manchu of the Psalms and Isaiah," but the pundit proved "of no utility at all, but only the cause of error."
Borrow was soon able to transcribe the Manchu characters with greater facility and speed than he could English. In addition to being able to translate from and into Manchu, he could compose hymns in the language, and even prepared a Manchu rendering of the second Homily of the Church of England, "On the Misery of Man." He had, however, made the discovery that Manchu was far less easy to him than it had at first appeared, and that Amyot was to some extent justified in his view of the difficulties it presented. "It is one of those deceitful tongues," he confesses in a letter to Mr Jowett, "the seeming simplicity of whose structure induces you to suppose, after applying to it for a month or two, that little more remains to be learned, but which, should you continue to study a year, as I have studied this, show themselves to you in their veritable colours, amazing you with their copiousness, puzzling with their idioms."{118b} Its difficulties, however, did not discourage him; for he had a great admiration for the language which "for majesty and grandeur of sound, and also for general copiousness
At first Borrow seems to have found the severity of the winter very trying. "The cold when you go out into it," he writes to his mother (1st/13th Feb. 1834), "cuts your face like a razor, and were you not to cover it with furs the flesh would be bitten off. The rooms in the morning are heated with a stove as hot as ovens, and you would not be able to exist in one for a minute; but I have become used to them and like them much, though at first they made me dreadfully sick and brought on bilious headaches."
There was still at the Sarepta House, the premises of the Bible Society's bankers in St Petersburg, the box of Manchu type, which had not been examined since the river floods. In addition to this, the only other Manchu characters in St Petersburg belonged to Baron Schilling, who possessed a small fount of the type, which he used "for the convenience of printing trifles in that tongue," as Borrow phrased it. This was to be put at Borrow's disposal if necessary; but first the type at the Sarepta House had to be examined. Borrow's plan was, provided the type were not entirely ruined, to engage the services of a printer who was accustomed to setting Mongolian characters, which are very similar to those of Manchu, who would, he thought, be competent to undertake the work. He suggested following the style of the St Matthew's Gospel already printed, giving to each Gospel and the Acts a volume and printing the Epistles and the Apocalypse in three more, making eight volumes in all.
These he proposed putting "in a small thin wooden case, covered with blue stuff, precisely after the manner of Chinese books, in order that they may not give offence to the eyes of the people for whom they are intended by a foreign and unusual appearance, for the mere idea that they are barbarian books would certainly prevent them being read, and probably cause their destruction if ever they found their way into the Chinese Empire." {117a} Borrow left nothing to chance; he thought out every detail with great care before venturing to put his plans into execution.
Although busily occupied in an endeavour to stimulate Russian government officials to energy and decision, Borrow was not neglecting what had been so strongly urged upon him, the perfecting of himself in the Manchu dialect. In reply to an enquiry from Mr Jowett as to what manner of progress he was making, he wrote
"For some time past I have taken lessons from a person who was twelve years in Pekin, and who speaks Manchu and Chinese with fluency. I pay him about six shillings English for each lesson, which I grudge not, for the perfect acquirement of Manchu is one of my most ardent wishes." {118a}
This person Borrow subsequently recommended to the Society "to assist me in making a translation into Manchu of the Psalms and Isaiah," but the pundit proved "of no utility at all, but only the cause of error."
Borrow was soon able to transcribe the Manchu characters with greater facility and speed than he could English. In addition to being able to translate from and into Manchu, he could compose hymns in the language, and even prepared a Manchu rendering of the second Homily of the Church of England, "On the Misery of Man." He had, however, made the discovery that Manchu was far less easy to him than it had at first appeared, and that Amyot was to some extent justified in his view of the difficulties it presented. "It is one of those deceitful tongues," he confesses in a letter to Mr Jowett, "the seeming simplicity of whose structure induces you to suppose, after applying to it for a month or two, that little more remains to be learned, but which, should you continue to study a year, as I have studied this, show themselves to you in their veritable colours, amazing you with their copiousness, puzzling with their idioms."{118b} Its difficulties, however, did not discourage him; for he had a great admiration for the language which "for majesty and grandeur of sound, and also for general copiousness