Page:Gems of Chinese literature (1922).djvu/295

 Liberty!” has gradually become the pious catchword of our callow youth of to-day. But the leaders of our “new people” say, If China would forever enjoy the blessings of a complete civilization and of a genuine liberty, it is necessary to begin by defining exactly that in which liberty consists. Allow me then to discuss this question.

Liberty is diametrically opposed to slavery. If we examine the histories of the development of liberty in Europe and in the Americas, we shall find that the struggle was confined to the four following points: (1) administrative liberty, (2) religious liberty, (3) national liberty, and (4) economic liberty. The object of the first was to protect the people against their own government; of the second, to protect members of a church against the church; of the third, to protect one's own nation against foreign nations; and of the fourth, to protect the people against the operations of Capital and Labour. Administrative liberty may be further divided under three heads, the respective objects being (1) to secure the liberty of the masses in regard to officials, (2) to secure the liberty of the whole nation in regard to the government in power, and (3) to secure the liberty of colonies in regard to the mother country. The principles on which the practice of liberty depends are no more than these.

Liberty means that every man shall be free, except that he may not encroach upon the freedom of others. And since it is forbidden to each individual to encroach upon the freedom of others, it follows that such subjection of the individual is also a point of importance. How can this be regarded as a drag on liberty? Liberty connotes the freedom of the whole community and not the freedom of the individual. In the early ages of savagedom, individual liberty prevailed and the liberty of the community did not exist; whereas in civilized times the liberty of the community has predominated and the liberty of the individual has decreased. These two statements are indisputable and contain no shade of error. If the liberty of the individual is to be accounted true liberty, then of the inhabitants of the world who enjoy the blessings 35