Arizona republican., 1900-07-15

tainly following it speedily in order of
 time, came the master curse of China,
 a congestion of population so terrible
 that 1t compelled the whole population
 to postpone everything, especially re-
 flection and the nobler qualities. to
 continuous struggle for the means of
 existence, as interpreted by a people in
 whom the desire for comfort and per
 sonal happiness is as strong as in any
 European race. The result was a rla-
 tion of countless millions of Self seekers,
 in whom passive endurance of evil cir
 cumstances became the first and most
 necessary quality, industry a universal
 disease, the conscience an atrophied en-
 tity, and all ideals subject to postpone
 ment in presence of the immediate ne
 cessity of the hour. Left by their his
 tory without an aristocracy, they
 turned for guidance to those who knew,
 as they thought, the principles of their
 civilization and these men, selfish as
 the commonalty, without link with the
 past or hope of future, used their aie-
 vation for personal advancement. Like
 the Roman nobles of the declining em-
 pire as painted in MT. DilPs remarkable
 work, they mistook criticism for cul-
 ture, and craved above all things for
 official rank and the protection which
 wealth afforded them. Society began to rot, and the degradation was accel- erated by an irruption of barbarians from the steppes precisely akin to the Turks, but with no antiseptic in Ma hometanism, who were absorbed and partly lost in the huge mass of the civ but rI,e to it no new or nobler quality, and in fused into it a taint of their own fero- city.
 The modern Chinaman is therefore the most selfish of mankind. callCus as an animal, with only a relic of a con- science, disinclined to fight because he thinks of himself first, and utterly cor ruptible because money is to him the supreme protection, but nevertheless q strong man with a clear head for af- fairs, and with a strong faith, though it is in his civilization and not in any creed. His most earnest hatred is neither for the bad nor the good. but for all who threaten or who despise that civilization, among. whom he reck- ons. not without reason, all foreigners, the English and the Rus sians. He fears both these, wishes ill to both, and, if it were convenient. would infiict on them mortal injury. This convenience is, however, his first care, and it is probable that though they are brave men the first leader who will make good Chinese soldiers is the leader who will inflict torture for 
 Tn the ordinary details of life the Chinaman is kindly. he is the most strenuous of workers, because if he were not the awful crowding would crush him, and as upright as a con scienceless man of clear brain ever is When cheating would diminish busi- ness he never cheats. He is the most liar in the world, but he does not love lying, does not think of it, as d Hindoo does, as a pleasurable exercise, but lies exactly up to the point where, as his native tells him, lying is conven- tent for his interests. He is boastful as a Frenchman is, because he believes his civilization perfect. and being an Asi- atic and without anything to measure himself by except himself, his boastful- ness is grandiose and to Europeans comic.
 This is not a pretty picture. but it must be studied by the light of a con- cluding sentence. which we believe every experienced missionary or ac- Sinologue will endorse There is in almost every Chinaman imponderable, Unaccount- able. not to be reckoned with, which impels him to actions which do not seem to arise out of his character He will on rare occasions suppress his 'en- frightened selfishness'' for a moment, and then he is for that moment a diff ferent man. What happens to him mo- body knows, but it is because it does happen that those who know him best reject the theory that he is a separate creation, in making whom the soul had been forgotten or Spectator.