Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/203

Rh, in the examination halls. In short, difficulties vanish before them, and they cheer each other on, with verses like the following:—

Another advantage of the system is, that it ensures the education of the magistrates. Before a single step can be gained in the literary ladder, the memory must be exercised; and the scrutiny through which the candidates pass, ensures a habit of vigilance and assiduity, which must be serviceable to them ever after. The ancient classics contain many moral maxims; and the history of the empire, recording the causes of the rise and fall of dynasties, affords some knowledge of political economy: thus the mind becomes informed, as far as information is attainable in China. The man who would prevail, must exercise his thoughts, and a thinking man is likely to prove a good magistrate. The system, at any rate, is calculated to ensure a corps of learned officers; and it would not be much amiss, if some triple examination of the kind were adopted, before our district magistrates, and lord-lieutenants, received their commissions. The Chinese look upon the public examinations as the glory of their land, and think meanly of those nations, where the same plan is not adopted.

The disadvantages of the system arise from the contracted range of their literature, and from their pertinacious attachment to the ancients, without fostering the genius and invention of the moderns. The sacred books are supposed to contain every thing necessary to