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THE PEOHEESS OF SCIENCE IN CHINA. 
By EOBEET K. DOUGLAS, 
Of the Bkitish Museum. 
I N no instance has the truth of the French proverb “ Le mieux 
est I’ennemi du hien ” been more clearly shown than in the 
case of modern Japan and China. The progress made of late 
years by the people of the former country has been so rapid 
and astounding that the more modest advances made by their 
neighbours have appeared too insignificant for notice. With 
their national power of acquisitiveness the Japanese have with- 
out hesitation imported wholesale all the knowledge and science 
of the West with as much ease as though they were ordering a 
consignment of shirtings. They have founded universities and 
established schools, where foreign professors of every branch of 
European learning deliver lectures to young gentlemen in black 
cloth coats and patent leather boots. They have constructed 
railways and introduced telegraphs, and have gone to a vast 
expense to obtain an accurate geological survey of their 
country. For these and all their other efforts to Europeanise 
Japan they are looked upon as the pioneers of civilisation in 
the East. They are held up as models of what intelligent 
Easterns should be, and any doubt thrown on the stability of 
the movement is laughed to scorn. And certainly, if other 
Oriental States are to be judged by the standard of rapid pro- 
gress thus set up, the Chinese, when put into the balance, cannot 
but be found wanting. Perhaps one reason why they have 
not rushed with such headlong speed into the scientific market 
of the West is that they have less need of foreign instruction 
than the Japanese, their scientific knowledge, such as it is, being 
more advanced than that possessed by their neighbours. Some 
allowance must doubtless be made for their deeply-rooted 
old-fashioned prejudice in favour of walking in the paths which 
their forefathers have trod. It is, moreover, always more diffi- 
cult to set a large body in motion than a small one ; and even 
