Page:The Spirit of the Chinese People.djvu/192

 (the Ehrfürcht of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister.) We now see how evident it is that a judgment of the manners and customs of a nation should be founded upon the knowledge of the moral principles of the people. Moreover the study, of the Government and political institutions of a country,—which, we have said should be reserved by the student to the last stage of his labours,—must also be founded upon an understanding of their philosophical principles and a knowledge of their history.

We will conclude with a quotation from "The " [sic]Higher Education," or the Book of Platitudes, as foreigners consider it. "The Government of the Empire," it is said in that book, "should begin with the proper administration of the State; the administration of the State begins with the regulation of the family; the regulation of the family begins with the cultivation of the individual." This, then, is what we mean by Chinese Scholarship.

This article on Chinese Scholarship was written and published in the "N.C. " in Shanghai in 1884.—Exactly thirty years ago!