Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/315

 jESuiTa 2^1 celebrated Jesuit^ Adam SchalL'^. . . This is a strange statement, apparently made upon Boman Catholic authority. The "reigning king'' of Corea, who was, as we have seen, in the hands of the Manchus, never entered Peking ; otherwise the "Annals/' which contain accounts of the appointment of every trifling embassy, and of the visit of every king's son received at court, could not possibly have passed the remarkable event in silence, even though the "Holy Wars" might The son of the "reigning king," who himself affcerwards became "reigning king," was probably in Peking ; not as actual king, but as heir- apparent, and we presume this is what is meant Few men outside their own order regard the Jesuits with unmixed respect ; but whatever our judgment regarding their religious tenets, and the peculiar system of ethics they have evolved, none will deny them the praise due to zeal, bravery, and perseverance in carrying out a scheme which they have resolved upon. Their missions to the heathen began long before those of Protestants. They have been carried on with more system and vigour; and we think they wrought with much more efficiency, and over a far larger base. Taken man for man, we believe too that they have sent far more able men into this work ; and I do not know if I am far wrong in considering their average mental capacity, in spite of their intellect-warping ^ superior toL!ve™g7p».e*„>t «d»,oo«7 oTLf the present day.* If the Protestant missionaries changed places with the Romish, we believe that no such fruits could have been shown in the east as the Romanists can show in their past And if those Romish priests had worked under the Protestant system, we believe the indelible work done would have been immensely greater than it has been under the Romish. Indeed, the Jesuits, to begin with, in the days of their greatest success and triumphs, were in a sense Protestants. They acted independently of, some- times in antagonism to, Rome ; yet the Romish system clung to which had far better opportimitiee of judging. But I cannot change my opinion of the early Chinese histoiy of the Jesuits, though I may be wrong as to its modem state*
 * The opposite of tibia is prodaimed in the *' Taipisg Behenion,"— the author of