COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



with the Indians of Paraguay constitute one of 

 the most brilliant feats in missionary annals. 

 Such unparalleled ascendency did the priests 

 acquire over the imaginations of these barba- 

 rians that they actually made them cease from 

 warfare. They taught them European methods 

 of agriculture, as well as the arts of house- 

 building, painting, dyeing, furniture-making, 

 even the use of watches ; and they administered 

 the affairs of the community with a despotic 

 power which has seldom been equalled either 

 in absoluteness or in beneficence. Nevertheless 

 the superficiality of all this show of civilization 

 was illustrated by the fact that, unless perpet- 

 ually watched, the workmen would go home 

 leaving their oxen yoked to the plough, or 

 would even cut them up for supper if no other 

 meat happened to be at hand. Examples of a 

 state of things intermediate between this bar- 

 baric improvidence and the care-taking foresight 

 of the European are to be found among the 

 Chinese, — a people who have risen far above 

 barbarism, but whose civilization is still of a 

 primitive type. The illustration is rendered 

 peculiarly forcible by the fact that the Chinese 

 are a very industrious people, and where the 

 returns for labour are immediate will work as 

 steadily as Germans or Americans. Owing to 

 their crowded population, every rood of ground 

 \s needed for cultivation, and upon their great 



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