Morning journal and courier., 1892-05-16
No. ll6

that we did not mention such thing to 6 friend because we were afraid of putting him out of countenAnoe. Again, we say of any humiliation suffered by & nsighbOr that the poor man was thoroughly put out of countsnAnce.
 The Chinese have developed this line of mental sensitiveness 10 the utmost. Ii is as important 10 save & mans face in the course of any transaction as 10 avoid call ing him bad names or kicking him down stairs To destroy 6 mans face is the worst of all injuries, and would only be resorted to under extreme provocstion- It is thought reasonable to save the sffsce" of condemned criminal A Chinam&n will save his face even If he lose his head, and MT. Smith tells us of a magistrate
 who was allowed as a special favor 10 be behesded in his robes of office in order to save his face" No doubt the Highland chieftsin c- the knight of the Middle Ages often thought of his honor as a Chinsman thinks of his face. When the Black Prince waited on the prisoners st table, he probably did 60 with the kindly intention of saving their face and of in creasing his own. Again, Francis I.'s "All is lost but honor," was doubtless in- tended as a proclamation to his subjects tubt uc LEU uOt lOtL race. The I1znaInaQ. however, extends the preservation of face far beyond that of honor The idea in wolves with him @ minute knowledge of the feelings and susceptibilities of his neighbors. It forces him to consider in A hundred ways the sensibilities of others, and to study how they may be preserved from being wounded. Face is, in fact, a minute politeness, which penetrates into every corner of daily life
 If, then, politeness is kindliness, the Chinese ought, as we have said, 10 be the most kindly people on the face of the earth. Yet nothing is clearer than that they are not only not kindly, but posi- lively csllous. The very men who are so punctilious about the face of others will see their fellows tortured with the greatest complacency. It is evident, then, that politeness is not solely based on kindliness and charity, but can exist in races special ly devoid of those qualities. we do not, of course, mean that no Chinaman is good snd charitable, but only that callousness rather than kindliness is the mark of the race.) What, then, is politeness If it is not "real kindness kindly expressedF' We expect that it is essentially the smooth CT of life, the word probably coming, not from polls, a city, but from polio, to smooth. Politeness is based upon the necessity that all men feel for something which will make the wheels of life run smooth, and prevent the friction of per- sonsl contact breaking out into fire. 1t is the lubricating oil of existence. This fact, again, is curiously recognized in its syno- nym "civihty." It is the social virtue, the quality which is needed in the civis or cit iEen. Men need civiliiy most when they are most closely organized and most & state. Without this form of s'civism," |" so- ciety tends, As we have said, to catch fire from the friction of the atoms that compose it.
 The moment men get organized into any form of society, pOlibeuess appears. The most primitive tribe of red Indians has an elaborate code of polite behavior, used to prevent the ehieftAins from falling to blows. Ii is a matter of universal obser- vstion that mobs and other tumnliuary and fortuiious concourses of poor and un- educated men rapidly quarrel among them selves. The explanation is, in a great measure. 10 be fouud in their want of civ iliry. They are persons with the civil quAl- ities imperfectly developed, who do not un- derstand the urgent necessity for polite ness in the close intercourse which arises among them. They may improvise a ma chinery of government, but they forget that wheels want oil as well as steam power to make them do their woik properly. Po- likeness, and the forbeArAnce that comes with it, would have saved many peasant revolt from untimely dissolution