494 ASIA THE TEACHER. 



amasses a large fortune, he also is arrested and is put 

 to death, that his estate may escheat to the crown. 

 As the Chinese say, " The elephant is killed for his 

 ivory." This, then, is the secret of Asiatic apathy, 

 and not the heat of the climate, or the inherent 

 qualities of race. Civilised Asia has been always 

 enthralled, because standing armies have always been 

 required to resist the attacks of those warlike bar- 

 barians who cover the deserts of Arabia and Tartary, 

 the highlands of Ethiopia and Cabul. Asia, there- 

 fore, soon takes a secondary place, and Europe be- 

 comes the centi'e of the human growth. Yet it should 

 not be forgotten that Asia was civilised when Europe 

 was a forest and a swamp. Asia taught Europe its 

 A. B. C. ; Asia taught Europe to cipher and to draw ; 

 Asia taught Europe the language of the skies, how to 

 calculate eclipses, how to follow the courses of the 

 stars, how to measure time by means of an instrument, 

 which recorded with its shadow the station of the sun ; 

 how to solve mathematical problems ; how to philo- 

 sophise with abstract ideas. Let us not forget the 

 school in which we learnt to spell, and those venerable 

 halls in which we acquired the rudiments of science 

 and of art. The savage worships the shades of his 

 ancestors chiefly from selfish fear ; the Asiatic follows, 

 from blind prejudice, the wisdom of the ancients, and 

 rejects with contempt all knowledge which was un- 

 known to them. Yet within these superstitions a 

 beautiful sentiment lies concealed. We ought, indeed, 

 to reverence the men of the past, who, by their 

 labours and their inventions, have made us what we 

 are. This great and glorious city in which we dwell, 

 this mighty London, the metropolis of the earth ; these 

 streets flowing with eager-minded life, and gleaming 



