The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-04-04
CHINESE AND FRENCH.
A Scientists Opinion of
Chinese Character.
Original Comparison and IIIustra-
ton By DR.. Frank COwan.

| DR.. Frank Cowan, the American
| scientist and traveller, who is now in
| Honolulu, in his discourse in the cere-
monial session of the Section of the
Geographical Society of Lisbon, in
Brazil, held in his honor, and pre-
sided over by His Imperial Majesty
Dom Pedro IT., last October, charac-
! terized the Chinese, and contrasted
them with the French in the follow
ing original and philosophic way.
| He said
The Chinese-collectivel consid-
cred as unit, and, in consequence,
! involving more or less of a variation
| for every individual-are essentially
a stunted, passive and subjective
people. They are an extreme evolu-
tion of the several phases of organic
life, which, for the purpose of in
struoting by illustration, or inculcat-
ing by caricature, if you will, may
be taken as typified in an objective
form in the three Us, the Tadpole,
the Termite and the TOucan.
AS A TADPOLE.
With respect to the first. The tad
pole, or toad-pullet, is the fish-like
form of the young or undeveloped
| toad; and when by the factors of its
| environment it is confined in the
water, it retains its fish-like gills and
tail; for it is absolutely necessary for
| it to emerge from the water that the
| former may be exchanged for lungs
and the latter for legs and feet. So,
| it seems to me, by the force of circum-
stances within and without them, the
| Chinese are stunted or undevelOped
| the ultimatum of manhood, which,
at various times in the past, they
have attained, and Of which to-day
they are capable doubtless, but only
with change in their circumstances
as great as that to tadpole from an
| aqueous to an atmospheric environ
ment. AS they are, accordingly, with
philosophic eomprehenslveuess and
accuracy in this especial phase of
their character, they may be COM
pared to as many tadpoles as they
number individuals, and their EN-
| pire denominated without further
ado, puddle of polIiwogs.
Curiously, too, in this comparison,
the queue of the undeveloped people,
imposed upon them as a badge of
their subsection by their conquerors
and rulers to-day, the Mantchou-
Tatars, may be considered as philo-
sophically as facetiously, the homo
| logue of the tail of the tadpole. In
connection with this aspect in which
| the Chinese are viewed, moreover,
| they may be considered for moment
| in contrast with the French, with
whom they are at war to-day, and
who are as fully developed, active
and aggressively objective, as the
Chinese are stunted, passive and sub
jective. In my humble opinion the
| misnamed Celestials, under their
| misnamed banner of the Dragon, in
themselves, unaided by and unasso-
ciated with other peoples and powers
of the earth inimical to the French,
are no more able to cope with the
legions of the Lily than a puddle of
polliwogs with starving stork.
AS A TERMITE.
With respect to the second. The
termite is noteworthy for it's num-
bers, which individually are very in
significant, but which, aggregated in
myriads, have effected such accumu-
lations of earth in and about their
habitations as to excite the wonder
of mankind for ages. So, it seems to
me, the Chinese, while individually
they are stunted and insignificant,
have worked all their wonders only
by aggregating in untold hordes; and,
curiously, like the termite, especially
in the accommodations of earth in and
about their collective habitations,
notably in the great walls around
their Imperial parks, in their greater
walls around the principal cities, and
in their greatest wall extending for
thousands of miles along the northern
frontier of their Empire, one of the
wonders of the world, the only use of
which has been for centuries, as it is
to-day, not to keep the invader out,
but to coop the invaded in. In fine,
the Chinese Empire, in the aspect in
which it is considered here may be
likened to an enormous ant-hill; and
in the present conflict between the
Chinese and the French, the former,
in themselves and apart from other
peoples, hold about the same rela-
ton to the latter as a mound of ter
mites to the great ant-eater of Brazil,
with its formidable claws to tear
open the mound, and its long mucila-
ginous tongue to take up and take in
the termites until its hunger is APP
peased.
AS \ TOUCAN.
Now, with respect to the third of
these organic phases so extremely
evolved in the Chinese as to be
strikingly characteristic, and the one
which is perhaps the most curious of
all. The toucan is one of the well
known birds of Brazil, which is
characteri zed by bill Of such enor-