At the present time, as you know, the Chinese race has elected to adopt our modern system of study, in addition, of course, to the study of their own classical literature. All their mentality, up to the present thee, has gone into the study of ethics and of their own classical literature. Now that they have begun to study and appreciate the value of science, they are feeling a new sympathy with us. What we want to guard against is mutual contempt. After all that is much more important in separating the peoples than any differences in the color of their skin.
People can come together as friends only upon the basis of mutual respect.
I have lived a quarter of a century in China, and I respect the Chinese. I respect their intellectual ability and their attainments in their literature. I recognize in them a thinking mind, and the Chinese are beginning to recognize the same in us. I feel that we are at the beginning of the most important epoch in human history. The Chinese, representing a quarter of the population of the world, have held aloof from us, and they have now decided to enter into the modern family of nations.