172 REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 



The Development of China. By Kenneth Scott Latourette, 

 formerly of the College of Yale in China. Published by the 

 Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1917. 



Plainly the first duty of the reviewer of this little book on a great 

 subject is to set forth the aim the author had in mind in compiling it. 

 He himself tells the tale. He felt the need in his own teaching for 

 "a short sketch for college courses ... a sketch which in the 

 light of the best modern scholarship will give the essential facts of 

 Chinese history, an understanding of the larger features of China's' 

 development, and the historical setting of its present-day problems : 

 a sketch which does not burden the student with unnecessary 

 details. ..." 



If we say at. once that Mr. Latourette has succeeded in no small 

 degree in attaining his object, (and that we may say), we are awarding 

 praise of some import, for the task was by no means easy, and in the 

 hands of one less well provided with authorities, and less competent 

 by training and experience, might well have proved a failure. For 

 the author has essayed the task of presenting the pith of China's 

 story, with some account of her culture, in less than 140 pages ! That, 

 however, brings the student down only to the thirties of the 19th 

 century. The second portion dealing with the past seventy years or 

 so is of practically the same length. 



To some of the better acquainted students of things Chinese this 

 may suggest Pope's equally dubious and cynical line — "A little 

 knowledge is a dangerous thing, drink deep, etc." The book before 

 us, though, as we shall see, it does not absolutely disprove the poet's 

 dictum, does go a good way towards it, for the "knowledge" thus 

 provided of China and her problems, though "little," will not be by 

 any means "dangerous," provided its supervision is in the hands of 

 men who know their subject. 



Being what it is, there is nothing in the volume that demands 

 attention as being entirely new, and we need not, therefore, follow 

 further its construction or aim. Some few comments may be made 

 regarding the subject matter here and there. 



Page 4, for example, places the greatest dialectic differences in 

 South and South-west China. We should have put them along the 

 coast. On the next page it is suggested that China's "gifts of 

 nature," her minerals being specially mentioned, have enabled her 

 to achieve unity, the fact being that her minerals, and some others of 

 her gifts, have scarcely been used at all. Her unity is much more 

 due to her classics, to the character of the people based on them, and 

 to their age-long use in the system of Civil Service examinations. 



