29th Oct.
Ir we were asked to account for the high position which China has always held amongst Asiatic nations, we might reply in one word—edueation. further pressed for the reason of the insignificance of her. standing vis-a-vis Western powers, we might answer once more—education. So true is it that her system of learning has been as once her blessing and her bane, It is hardly necessary to emphasise the fact that she has never in her history passed through a more momentous period that that with which she is now face to face. It might. be possible perhaps, with time at one's disposal, to find an historical parallel to it, but we frankly confess that to name one off-hand would tax our knowledge too severely, and besides it is of infinitely more in trance to know how she will bear herself under the new conditions, A century or so ago the great triad of Asiatic lands were practically what their hereditary habits and customs had made them. How vast the differen since! A new element has come in; a quickening, stimulating, electrifying, but disruptive element. We have seen how its effects have varied with the character of the elements it has had to combine or mix with. The Japanese, receptive and enterprising in themselves, have assimilated the new cor stituents and thereby strengthened and improved themselves in a marvellous manner. So vigorous has it made them that foreign tutelage is already almost a thing of the past, and the sturdy little Jap marches proudly along the path of progress depending only on his own strength and seeking guidance from no one. The Hindoo, servile and conquered, takes all that can be given of foreign teaching and asks for more. China, sullen and self-contained, has till now refused instruction an.t scorned assistance. We say this with a full knowledge of the strength of the Elucational Association of China, and of the hundreds of mission schools and the tens of hundreds of translated works set forth at length in the Educational Directory. "They have done admirable work, but the nation as a nation has never -arisen in its millions to welcome them or to show that it appreciated their labours. But a change has come over the scene. Phe sleepy giant is at last aroused, and we may leave it to his creditors to see that he does nek go to sleep again, Ejlucationally the present position is not unlike that of England at the period of the Renaissance. In common with other lands, England had passed.the Dark Ages in a state of intellectual torpor. She woke to find that not only was all knowledge in the hands of the priests, but that even for them the search for it had to be through the secret syllables of unspoken tongues. Yo gain a knowledge of these hidden mysteries forthwith became the aim of every thinking man of means. 'I'he grammar schools of Edward VI were the result, and the English "scholar" soon became what the Chinese "scholar" is to day, literally a reading man and no more, Unfortunately as the necessity of reading these languages for their contents died out, plausible pelagnzues continued to, palm them off upon us as indispensable jin themselves, for fashions. in the educational: world change slowly, and there is scarcely a country in existence at this moment whose scholastic system is not—largely on this account—much behind the age.
We have dwelt upon this point ba-cause there is a danger of the sams error being committed at the very outset of Chiun's re-awakening, 'There are many amongst the missionary body strongly in favour of English teaching. 'There are many on the other si these are reinforced by the exp ani fame of Dr. Fryer. But this ix by no means an instance of the proverbial doctors' dispute, for it appears to us that all parties would probably agree to this modification, viz: Chinese for the masses, English (and China) for the elite, 'I'he mistake at the European Renaissance was the utter ignor-ting of the language and education of the people. 'I'he masses were entirely untouched by the centuries devoted to Latin and Greek, It would be well-{nigh -as fatal an error for Chita to plunge headlong into a similar false position, When objectors urge the difficulty, nay the impossibility of rendering precise mathematical phraseo-0 Chinese, Dr. Fryer retorts that it is quite as easy for an educated Chinaman to tell how "the velocity of the diffusion of different gases versely proportional to the square root of their densities" as for anybody else. We would rather not attempt this—in Chinese—ourselves, but are content to take the Doctor's word for it.. Still, We may point out that for centuries to come the relative richness of the English and Chinese Iaugnages will be "somewhat in the ratio of a warehouse full of gold and gems to a godown littered with Lumber, 'I'ranslation will not lessen this difference so far as science is concerned, for it is notoriously impossible for translation to keep up to date. Therefore for this reason, if for no other, there must, pace the Doctor, leaven of English. Other. reasons for the study of this world-wide tongue are too evident to need notice. How successful this suggested scheme may be made we need only point to Japan
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.