128 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



Photo bij Mr. Afoixj 



[Hong-kong. 



A CHINESE GARDEN PARTY. 



a meaning to him. Such an action as a missionary voluntarily incurring hardship and danger 

 in the attempt to secure eternal felicity for men who have never done him service, and from 

 whom he cannot expect any compensating good, he can understand only as the result of a 

 wofully deranged mind. He is not endowed with much imagination, or it may be that 

 centuries of rigorous training within strictly material lines have practically clogged that mental 

 faculty, until it has become so torpid that it cannot become active under normal conditions. 

 The Mongol character, in Mr. Keane's estimation, is sluggish, with little initiative, but great 

 endurance; frugal, thrifty, and industrious; morality low; science slightly, art and letters 

 moderately developed. 



Men who possess little initiative that is, little of the bold, originative power which 

 constitutes genius are naturally largely imitative, and still more markedly tenacious of that 

 which they have tried and approved. They will expend immense energy on the elaboration 

 of a work they have begun,- but the mind shrinks from the attempt to conceive a new 

 task involving different principles and possessing a totally different character. On a given 

 solid base the Chinese will produce astonishing results, giving proof of tireless industry, 

 ingenuity, and perseverance. This fondness for elaboration of detail is displayed in nearly 

 every act of his ordinary life, and gives rise to the many ceremonies which the Chinaman 

 a very ceremonious creature daily practises. "Ceremony is the type of virtue," said Confucius 

 about 2,400 years ago; and the Chinese have not failed to preserve the axiom of the great 

 teacher. 



The form of government in China is decidedly patriarchal. The State is embodied in the 

 Emperor, who assumes towards his subjects at large the office of guide and guardian, which 



