60 SURGEON-GENERAL C. A. GORDON^ M.D., C.B.; Q.H.P.; ETC.; 



when its end is not understood it becomes a punishment." 

 Labour, whether manual or mental, is held to be the duty as 

 it is the privilege of man. From times the most ancient this 

 lias been so ; agitators and others who oppress the workers 

 have been execrated, Avhile the national characteristics 

 alluded to continue even to our own clay. " To stop the hand 

 is the way to stop the mouth." Such is the teaching of 

 a Chinese familiar proverb. In a country where the 

 youngest cannot afford to be idle, there is observable among 

 the young an air of staid gravity quite beyond their years, 

 the reason being that they are early under obligation 

 to take their parts in the serious business of life. Man, 

 according to Chinese philosophy, is from the nature of his 

 being, a creator and a worker. The sure way of ennobling 

 labour is to show its intimate agreement with natural laws ; 

 but the operation of these laws must not be set at nought 

 by other laws, civil or political. Hence, the moderation of 

 the taxes, and tlie property system which grants the labourer 

 the value of all he has created; the freedom and honour 

 accorded to labour and the labourer ; the absence through- 

 out the land of persons independent of labour^ of the luxuri- 

 ous classes, and of slaves or serfs. 



In certain indiistries it is a common custom for the masters 

 to associate their principal workmen with themselves by 

 giving them a share of the profits, while others adopt the 

 system of piece work. Fixed wages are unusual in indus- 

 trial or agricultural work ; and the greater number of indi- 

 viduals and families work for their own direct benefit instead 

 of being salaried. 



According to a Chinese song, " When the sun begins his 

 course I set myself to labour ; when he descends below 

 the horizon I sink into the arms of sleep. I quench my 

 tliirst from my own well ; I feed on the fruits of my own 

 fields. What can I gain or lose by the power of the 

 emperor?"* 



The influence of doctrines such as these, by hereditary 

 descent through many generations, has been to stereotype 

 in Chinese character a fitness for steady industry and 

 perseverance, which, when apcompanied as for the most 

 part it is by extreme frugality of habits, renders the indi- 

 vidual thus trebly endowed, the dangerou.s and often 

 successful competitor in industry, Avhich the Chinaman has 



* Abb6 Gro.sier, vol. ii, p. 378. 



