Page:The Spirit of the Chinese People.djvu/188

142 literature which Sir Thomas Wade must have had in his mind, when in his wrath he reproached the Chinese with "tenuity of intellect."

Another extraordinary judgment which used to be passed upon Chinese literature was, that it was excessively over-moral. Thus the Chinese people were actually accused of over morality, while at the same time most foreigners are pretty well agreed that the Chinese are a nation of liars! But we can now explain this by the fact that, besides the trashy novels we have already noticed, the work of translation among students of Chinese was formerly confined exclusively to the Confucian Classics. Nevertheless, there are of course a great many other things in these writings besides morality, and, with all deference to Mr. Balfour, we think that "the admirable doctrines" these books contain are decidedly not "utilitarian and wordly" as they have been judged to be. We will just submit two sentences and ask Mr. Balfour if he really thinks them "utilitarian and mundane." "He who sins against Heaven," said Confucius in answer to a Minister, "he who sins against Heaven has no place where he can turn to and pray." Again, Mencius says: "I love life, but I also love righteousness: but if I cannot keep them both, I would give up life and choose righteousness."

We have thought it worth while to digress so far in order to protest against Mr. Balfour's judgment, because we think that such smart phrases as "a bondslave to antiquity," "a past-master in casuistry"