204 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



possess many solid virtues as well as peculiar national defects. 

 They are also an extraordinarily virile and fertile people. 

 So virile are they that as a nation they have absorbed their 

 conquerors as readily as they have done the nations which 

 they have conquered. It is astounding the influence they 

 wield in this direction. As an example, take the late Manchu 

 Dynasty. So completely have the Chinese absorbed the 

 Manchus that to-day they are more " Chinese " than the Chinese 

 themselves. Yet no other nation can absorb the Chinese, and 

 though they are found the world over their nationality is every- 

 where unmistakable. This virility is likewise exemplified in 

 many other ways. For example, they are apparently indiffer- 

 ent to climate, and are to be found as workers from the arctic 

 regions to the tropics. The Chinese are everywhere the one 

 coloured race which can work and will work. Wherever they 

 are found they are industrious and capable. They wax wealthy 

 where whites would starve, and no nation in matters of labour 

 can compete with the Chinese on equal terms. They can copy 

 anything and everything, and under foreign supervision have 

 already turned out such complex machines as railway engines 

 and steamships. 



Malthusian principles have never been listened to, much 

 less practised in China. Large families are everywhere gloried 

 in, and children abound throughout the land. Since a son is 

 necessary to carry out the rites of ancestor-worship, boys 

 are more generally in favour than girls, yet it is a mistake 

 to think that the latter are despised or ignored. Even if 

 preference be shown to sons, the daughters have a share of the 

 family's affection. Infanticide, save in times of famine and dire 

 distress, is not practised, all the stories written about it not- 

 withstanding. Anent ancestor-worship we have nothing to say, 

 except to remark that the respect and esteem for parents and 

 old age, so characteristic of the Far East, is a wholesome 

 example to the Occident. 



A keynote to the Chinese character is pride. They are an 

 intensely proud people, and it must be confessed that their 

 pride is justified. Look on their history, their conquests, 

 their inventions, their arts, and crafts. In the history of the 

 world few nations have equal claims to honour and greatness 



