the subject of the following pages must be If the proper study of mankind is man, of interest to every one who enquires into society in the pasty and which regulate it the forces which have moulded Chinese
at present. The observations upon which the conclusions are based have been largely, although not exclusively, taken in the northern part of the empire. The Chinese people, however, are in such an important sense a unit, that differences in custom resemble those local variations of the compass, which, once understood and allowed for, serve but to confirm what they at first appear to contradict.
That all readers will agree with the conclusions reached, is not to be expected, but if conducted in " spirit of candour the consideration of the question as to what causes the present condition of Chinese society is due, cannot fail to be beneficial, whatever theories may ultimately be either established or overthrown.
The conviction constantly grows upon those who have most opportunity to know them, that the Chinese are physically and intellectually among the foremost races of the earth. Their moral nature has, however, received but a one-sided development. The have hedin large measure that "good" whicl of the "best". Many of the results whic! has been pronounced to e the worst enemy have been attained are of a high order of excellence, but these good results are uniformly accompanied by others to which it is our present object to direct attention.
The moral forces which have produced in China many good fruits, and some bad ones, have long since ceased to exercise any developing power. Chinese society will never become what it right be, or what it ought to be, except by the infusion of a new life from without and from above.
There is w familar passage in one of the oldest Chinese classics, the Book of Odes, which, in describing the palace of an ancient King, shows in a striking light the relative estimation at that remote time put upon boys and upon girls. After speaking of the dreams of the king, the poet adds a couple of stanzas, which, according to Dr. Legge's translation, are as follows Sons shall be born to him 5 they will be put to sleep on couches They will be clothed in robes; they will Their ery will be loud.
have soeptres to play with They wil (hereafter) resplendent with y ved knee-covers, The (future) king, the princes of the land.
Daughters will be born to him, They will put to sleep on the ground They will be clothed with wrappers; they 1 have tiles to play with.
It will be theirs neither to do wrong nor to do good.
Only about the spirits and the food will P® they have to think, And to cotise no sorrow to their parents.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.