16th June.
Ir has been the common-place of philosophers of all ges that life is largely composed of illusions that have been! dispelled, only to be followed by others ov which the process is repeated. here is a satisfactory explanation of this fact in the complexity of terrestrial affairs, the limitations of human judgment, and the presence of that hope which, despite of millions of disappointments, still continues to "spring eternal iv the human breast." It seems but a few weeks ago that we used to be reprinting articles from the Spectator, which at that time knew all that was knowable about China and the Far fast, showing how rapidly China had leaped to the front as "a naval power." When our friends at home asked us if this could be true, we modestly replied that we feared it was even so. And then came the Yalu' river, and Weihaiwei. The "naval power" illusion was succeeded by the " blessing in disguise" theory about the remoter effects of the ar. It was going to awaken China there was to be Reform iand all that. What expectations were encou ed among old ladies at home about the iuglish that the Emperor was learning! An old Empire and a new vital speech of the ruling race, and so forth. We none of us write home on that subject now. Then there was tw be the march of improvement in inated rial lines, China had/at all events learned well that lesson of humiliation. Her moral code she still ignorantly ings: to as. the acme of human
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.