In view of these facts, what wonder that Chinese newspapers are
discussing the question of a national religion? The fires of the
old altars are well-nigh extinct; and, among those who have come
forward to
[Page vii]
advocate the adoption of Christianity as the only faith that meets
the wants of an enlightened people, one of the most prominent is
a priest of Buddha.
May we not look forward with confidence to a time when China shall
be found in the brotherhood of Christian nations?
W. A. P. M.
_Peking, October 30, 1906._
[Page ix]
INTRODUCTION
How varied are the geological formations of different countries,
and what countless ages do they represent! Scarcely less diversified
are the human beings that occupy the surface of the globe, and not
much shorter the period of their evolution. To trace the stages
of their growth and decay, to explain the vicissitudes through
which they have passed, is the office of a philosophic historian.
If the life history of a silkworm, whose threefold existence is
rounded off in a few months, is replete with interest, how much
more interesting is that of societies of men emerging from barbarism
and expanding through thousands of years. Next in interest to the
history of our own branch of the human family is that of the yellow
race confronting us on the opposite shore of the Pacific; even
more fascinating, it may be, owing to the strangeness of manners
and environment, as well as from the contrast or coincidence of
experience and sentiment.
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