But were these ancient nations the last of Asia? Has that
mighty continent nothing more to contribute to the world than
the memories of a mighty past? It is impossible to believe
that this is all. The historic review gives a momentum which
the mind cannot easily overcome. As we look towards the Far
East, we can plainly see that the evolution is incomplete.
Whatever purpose the Creator had in mind has certainly not yet been
accomplished. More than two-thirds of those innumerable
myriads have as yet never heard of those high ideals of life and
destiny which God Himself revealed to men. It is incredible
that a wise God should have made such a large part of the
world only to arrest its development at its present unfinished
stage, inconceivable that He should have made and preserved
so large a part of the human race for no other and higher purpose
than has yet been achieved.

Within this generation, a new Asiatic power has suddenly
appeared in a part of Asia far removed from the region in which
the wise men of old lived and studied, and the might of
that nation is even now checking the progress of huge and
haughty Russia. But brilliant as has been the meteoric career
of Japan, there is another race in Asia, which, though now
moving more sluggishly, has possibilities of development that
may in time make it a dominant factor in the future of the
world. Great forces are now operating on that race and it is
the purpose of this book to give some account of those forces
and to indicate the stupendous transformation which they are
slowly but surely producing.