Page:Oriental Religions - China.djvu/423

Rh in this case most powerful, would require. Numerous and destructive civil wars, and the very short epochs in her long history of four thousand years during which China has been united in a single empire, make us almost doubt whether the word unity can properly be used of this enormous number of beings aggregated by the force of race. Race is the invincible quality which impels every man and woman in China to seek organization with his like as the breath of his existence; which teaches every one to revere patriarchal rule, as the ordainment of Heaven for the government of men. The ideal of this race is the Family. For their vast schemes of universal empire, whether as sweep of Tartar conquest, or serene absolutism of Chinese polity, the logic is the same: As one Father for the Family, so one Ruler for the World.