36 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



is this but breeding animals to prey on them? And what is the differ- 

 ence between destroying them by the sword or by unfeeling conduct? If 

 we detest those savage animals which mutually tear and devour each other, 

 how much more should we abhor a prince who, instead of being a father to 

 his people, does not hesitate to rear animals to destroy them. What kind of 

 a father to his people is he who treats his children so unfeelingly, and has less 

 care of them than of the wild beasts he provides for ? " 



The will of the people is always referred to as the supreme power of 

 the state, and Mencius warns princes that they must both please and 

 benefit their people, observing that " if the country is not subdued in 

 heart there will be no such thing as governing it. . . . He who gains 

 the hearts of the people secures the throne, and he who loses the people's 

 hearts loses the throne. Good laws," he further remarks, " are not as 

 effective as winning the people by good instruction." 



II. After accurately memorizing the ' Four Books,' having relieved 

 the drudgery with exercises in writing, the student generally enters 

 on the second stage of his education, which, however, is unfortunately 

 in many cases postponed until the ' Five Classics ' have also been en- 

 graved on memory's tablet. In this second stage, the scholar is 

 initiated into an understanding and translation into the vernacular of 

 the sacred books previously committed. But the light is rather spar- 

 ingly admitted even then. A simple character here and there is ex- 

 plained and perhaps after a year or two the teacher explains entire 

 sentences. Judiciously employed, this does for the Chinese what 

 translation into and out of the dead languages of the west does for us. 

 Yet, as Dr. Martin claims, this second stage is made as much too easy 

 as the first course is too difficult. Instead of requiring a lad, dictionary 

 in hand, to quarry out the meaning of his author, the teacher reads 

 the lesson, and demands simply a faithful reproduction; a feat of 

 sheer memory again. Simultaneously with this training in exposition 

 or translation the student begins to practise composition. But here 

 again the lack of inflection and the predominence of collocation, the 

 ' polarity ' in which is determined by previous usage, make composi- 

 tion in the Chinese language difficult and throw the burden on the 

 imitative faculty — a strong trait as evidenced at present among all 

 classes of the people. 



Although the whole course is designed with the civil service ex- 

 aminations in view, it is pursued without variation by those who are 

 not looking toward office-holding. Yet at the close of this second 

 stage, the boy who expects to enter civil service begins to prepare rather 

 more specifically for the examinations. He is perhaps fourteen, and 

 for two years or more he widens his reading, ' opens his pen,' and makes 

 essays for his master's criticism, and may then be ready to enter the 

 lists for the first degree. 



III. In the third stage of the Chinese scholar's career, composition 



