82 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



sence, in Chinese thought, of the processes incident to 

 inductive reasoning. They possess a sort of inventive 

 automatism; and in the results they have achieved, the 

 environment appears to have been by far the more potent 

 factor than the brain. This faculty they probably have, 

 and always have had, in higher degree than any other 

 people. But they have chiefly expended their brain 

 energy, so to speak, upon a multitude of rites, ceremonies 

 and inflexible customs, governing and restricting every 

 phase of their existence; and upon the acquisition by rote, 

 of the contents of volumes of precepts and historical tradi- 

 tions, which find no practical applications. The conse- 

 quence is minds of stunted or abnormal growth, capable 

 of great subjective action and the grinding out thereby 

 of many words ; but even under the influence of the needs 

 of three hundred and fifty million people, and aided by 

 favorable temperature and abundant physical resources, 

 incapable of taking more than the first inventive step. 



Their love for the marvelous and supernatural is fos- 

 tered by their national customs. Their unwillingness to 

 learn from the outer barbarian, is exhibited in the dis- 

 astrous consequences of their war with the Japanese. 

 They degraded the science of astronomy into mere astrol- 

 ogy. They have produced no great picture, no famous 

 statue faithfully representing nature, although they have 

 handled the brush and chisel with consummate skill for 

 ages. But they are the most wonderfully cunning of imi- 

 tators in the world. 



The data which has now been presented concerning the 

 Chinese, lead to the following conclusions : 



If the south-pointing chariots which existed prior to the 

 1 2th century A. D., be regarded (despite the doubts sug- 

 gested) as governed by a south-pointing magnetic needle, 

 or if the traditions of such a needle in the hands of the 

 geomancers be accepted as true, then Chinese annals fur- 

 nish the earliest recorded proof of the turning of magnetic 

 polarity to useful account. But the same records give no 



