Know that Knowledge can be divided into two types, one religious knowledge () and the other intellectual (), and most of the branches of religious knowledge are intellectual in the opinion of him who knows them, and most of the branches of intellectual knowledge belong to the religious code, in the opinion of him who understands them. “And he, to whom God does not commit light, has no light.”

The Honorable the President, and Chairman, of the Honorable the Court of Directors, under whose orders, and authority the Commerce of Great Britain is carried on with the Chinese Nation at Canton, to the high and mighty Lord, the Tsontock [Tsung-tu], or Viceroy, of the Provinces of Quantong [Kuangtung] and Kiang-si, Greeting.

The famous Sāsānian bas-reliefs at Ṭāq-i Bustān, (A.D. 590–628) have so often been reproduced that it is highly probable that most Orientalists could picture the scenes in the mind's eye with little difficulty. Yet I do not suppose that any could give a correct delineation of the instruments of music contained therein for the simple reason that the reproductions of these sculptures have given so many different outlines for these instruments.

In the passage of nearly forty years since the first discovery of the Honan relics and their strange inscriptions, great has been the progress in their decipherment. How much and how solid this gain in knowledge has been, the present writer can perhaps appreciate better than more recent students, when he looks back at his own notes and the correspondence that passed betweenthe late Mr. Frank Chalfant and himself.