our lives, taking into account social order and marriage vows, which
we find in Chinese literature or mythology. It is not difficult to
perceive the reason why the Greeks, who rule the realms of philosophy
and art and literature to-day, after the lapse of many centuries,
are the superior people. Well does that master-mind, Shakespeare,
characterise evil custom:

"That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil."

But a better day is coming for Chinese women. Wherever Christianity
has touched them in the past they have been uplifted and benefited.
The sun seems now to rise in greater effulgence on the Kingdom of the
Yellow Dragon. The wretched custom of dwarfing and destroying the feet
of a child whose misfortune, according to Confucius, it is to be
born a female, is giving way under pressure from contact with the
enlightened nations of the world. The teachings of the Christian
Church are having their salutary effect and Chinamen are beginning to
learn the value of a woman's life from the Biblical standpoint, and
the daughters of the Flowery Kingdom will, as time goes on, become
more and more like the polished corners of the Temple, or the
Caryatides supporting the entablature of the Erechtheum at Athens. It
is Madame Wu Ting-Fang, wife of the Chinese Minister at Washington,
who has recently returned from a visit to her old home, who says: "The
first penetrating influence of exterior civilisation on the customs of
my country has touched the conditions of women. The emancipation of
woman in China means, first of all, the liberation of her feet, and
this is coming. Indeed, it has already come in a measure, for the
style in feet has changed. Wee bits of feet, those no longer than an
infant's, are no longer the fashion. When I went back home I found