Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/342

 secure the best apartment for an invalid lady from Shanghai. The thermometer at the time was standing at about one hundred degrees in the shade, so that after completing our task we were in a condition to enjoy to the full the cool breeze that swept through the verandah of the hotel. It was an unpretending but charming retreat, and none the less so on account of the many comforts which the enterprising proprietor had in store for his guests.

Chefoo foreign settlement lies on the opposite side of the bay, and is about the least inviting place of the kind on the coast. But still we must not forget that it enjoys the honour of standing on the ground of the most classic province in the Empire, where the engineering labours of the celebrated Yu were in part performed. Confucius, too, was a native of the Shan-tung province, and so indeed was Mensius, his successor. While Pythagoras was pursuing his philosophical researches at Crotona, Confucius was compiling the classical lore that has since been to China what the compass is to the mariner at sea. But this ancient guide to national prosperity, social, political and religious, when relied on by those who now-a-days control the helm of the Empire, is as untrustworthy as the compass of a man-of- war when the steersman makes no allowance for the influences of the iron plates and steel guns with which science has sur- rounded his needle. And yet fain would the wisest Confucianists of the "Central Flowery Land" still rivet their fond gaze on their ancient books; fain would they guide their steps by the rushlight of a dim science and philosophy, lit by sages of four thousand years ago; and that though truth, like the sun in noonday splendour, is shining on the nations around.

The foreign trade of Chefoo is small, though not unimpor- tant. Whether it be that the natives affect more the simple