There are certain glib phrases about China, which excite intense irritation in anyone who knows anything about her. One is the popular but absolutely fallacious "Four Hundred Millions." The other we have used at the head of this note. Dr. G. E. Vincent, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, who has lately gone back to New York, was asked by an inter viewer if he looked forward to a speedy awakening of "the sleeping giant." He gave the following admirable answer:—mee!
"People are very foud of describing China 43 a sleeping giant.' The figure of speech leaves much to be desired, for anyone who even casually has studied China the question must present itself, Was China ever really a great potential. ity? Rather China may become a giant some day. Personally, I feel that' the phenomenon which at' present is becoming plain in China is, rather than a reawakening, that of a population which slowly, and for the first time, is solidify-10 nationality, achieving conscious-2 of itself as @ great entity and possi ble force, a tremendous group of individuals in process of being knit into actual union." Ferbaps the slowest changes will come in Chinese social life, which is very conventional and less amenable to ulteratuan even than other phases of existence in the vast Republic. But improvements are upon their way. We must not overestimate the work which has not been done or the speed at which new work can be seccitisiel a incredible inertia binds a ich accepts as its philoso) saban worship, which follow? tradition blindly, which in the main feels a sorrow-tui contempt for all men and things foreign. "The calm dignity of the Chinese is hatiiing to the man of Europe or America, who would study them. One onder what is going on be-which gaze upon the outer such non-committal placidity. I have learned enough of them to know that they really regard our feverish activity, our constant preoccupation in industry,, commerce, and the like as (to speak itoly) foolishness."
Philosophy of that kind has caused a vast deal of suffering, but has it caused more than our Western hurry and fret? And it has certainly produced a civilization in many respects far more genuine.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.