Now the interesting fact about the yellow branch of the human race is,
not that they had so juvenile a constitution, but that they have it;
that it has persisted practically unchanged from prehistoric ages.
It is certainly surprising in this kaleidoscopic world whose pattern
is constantly changing as time merges one combination of its
elements into another, that on the other side of the globe this set
should have remained the same. Yet in spite of the lapse of years,
in spite of the altered conditions of existence, in spite of an
immense advance in civilization, such a primitive state of society
has continued there to the present day, in all its essentials what
it was when as nomads the race forefathers wandered peacefully or
otherwise over the plains of Central Asia. The principle helped
them to expand; it has simply cramped them ever since. For, instead
of dissolving like other antiquated views, it has become, what it
was bound to become if it continued to last, crystallized into an
institution. It had practically reached this condition when it
received a theoretical, not to say a theological recognition which
gave it mundane immortality. A couple of millenniums ago Confucius
consecrated filial duty by making it the basis of the Chinese moral
code. His hand was the finishing touch of fossilification.
For since the sage set his seal upon the system no one has so much
as dreamt of changing it. The idea of confuting Confucius would be
an act of impiety such as no Chinaman could possibly commit. Not
that the inadmissibility of argument is due really to the authority
of the philosopher, but that it lies ingrained in the character of
the people. Indeed the genius of the one may be said to have
consisted in divining the genius of the other. Confucius formulated
the prevailing practice, and in so doing helped to make it perpetual.
He gave expression to the national feeling, and like expressions,