Page:The Spirit of the Chinese People.djvu/14

 characteristics of the real Chinaman and Chinese civilisation which I have already mentioned, I must here add one more, and that the chief characteristic, namely delicacy; delicacy to a preeminent degree such as you will find nowhere else except perhaps among the ancient Greeks and their civilisation.

It will be seen from what I have said above that the American people if they will study the Chinese civilisation, will get depth; the English, broadness; and the Germans, simplicity; and all of them, Americans, English and Germans by the study of the Chinese civilisation, of Chinese books and literature, will get a quality of mind which, I take the liberty of saying here that it seems to me, they all of them, as a rule, have not to a preeminent degree, namely, delicacy. The French people finally, by the study of the Chinese civilisation, will get all,—depth, broadness, simplicity and a still finer delicacy than the delicacy which they now have. Thus the study of the Chinese civilisation, of Chinese books and literature will, I believe, be of benefit to all the people of Europe and America. I have therefore added to this volume an essay on Chineses scholarship,—the sketch of a programme how to study Chinese, which I made for myself when I made up my mind and began, after my return from Europe, to study the civilisation of my own country, exactly now thirty years ago; this sketch of a programme how to study Chinese which I hope will be of help to those who want to study Chinese and the Chinese civilisation.