142 Progress and Civilisation. PT. m. 



been especially unable to realise the fruits which 

 grow from the exercise of the higher mental faculties. 

 It is remarkable that although they have been in 

 constant intercourse with the more advanced Euro- 

 pean nations, and although they have a natural 

 facility, yet they never have been able to imitate 

 any of our higher productions of Science. For 

 example, English ships have found their way to 

 China ever since the discovery of the Cape of Grood 

 Hope, and for the last two hundred years our com- 

 mercial intercourse with that country has been 

 frequent and increasing. Chinese are active sailors 

 and have long navigated their own waters ; it is even 

 said that the Mariner's Compass was known to them 

 before it was introduced into Europe ; and yet, 

 though they have our superior ships before their 

 eyes, they have never improved upon the model of 

 their heavy, cumbrous junks. They have never had 

 sufficient enterprise to construct a ship on the Euro- 

 pean model, or to return to us in Europe the visits 

 we make to them. If Chinese were at all made of 

 the same stuff with English or Americans, we should 

 have had long since Chinese merchantmen visiting 

 the western coasts of the American Continent, from 

 San Francisco to Panama, Callao, and Valparaiso, 



