354 PROBLEMS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION 



Maine assumes a limitation to the " ideas of which the race is 

 capable " ! l But, since he wrote, our knowledge has advanced, 

 and already he himself had discovered a clue that helps to explain 

 Chinese no less than other civilisations. Taking then the facts 

 of Chinese history and society as I have been able to learn them 

 from books, I have applied the principles that have governed 

 evolution among other races. But before proceeding to answer, 

 as far as I can, the three questions into which the Chinese problem 

 Authori- divides itself, I will mention the books that I have found most 

 Chinese usef " ul - First I P lace John Chinaman, by the Rev. G. Cockburn. 

 life The author was evidently a man of real insight, who was capable 

 of appreciating the virtues of the Chinese, though some of their 

 ways and modes of thought excited his contempt. China, its 

 Social, Political and Religious Life, by M. Eug. Simon, is a valuable 

 contribution to our knowledge. The author is so captivated by 

 the charms of the Chinese, that he constantly, in comparison, 

 depreciates everything French. In this respect he is unique as 

 far as my experience goes. In all my other authorities, when 

 they give their estimate of China and Chinamen, there recurs an 

 insuppressible " but." "They have many virtues, but !" 

 "But their religion is a degraded superstition." "But their 

 army is contemptible." " But their filth is intolerable." M. 

 Simon makes occasional half admissions as to filth, and still 

 contrives to admire. The Chinese have for him a glamour 

 about them that hides their faults. And here I may remark 

 that the man who has not been to China has an advantage in 

 one way over the man who has. He can realise Chinese 

 virtues without -the noisomeness of Chinese ways perpetually 

 obtruding itself upon him, to make him unappreciative and 

 unsympathetic. Continuing the list of our authorities, I may 

 mention China, by Archdeacon Gray, a mine of information ; 

 New China and Old by Archdeacon Moule, from which a 

 great deal is to be learnt ; Mrs Little's Intimate China, which 

 gives a number of first-hand experiences, and is especially inter- 

 esting on the subject of foot-binding and the movement against 

 it that is now beginning among the Chinese ; China, by Professor 



1 Ancient Laiu, p. 23 



