all time'' the spirit of one-third of the human race? All over
China the evidences of Confucius' power can be seen. Temples
rise on every hand. Ancestral tablets adorn every house.
The writings of the sage are diligently studied by the whole
population. When, centuries ago, a jealous Emperor ruthlessly
burned the Confucian books, patient scholars reproduced
them, and to prevent a recurrence of such iconoclastic fury, the
Great Confucian Temple and the Hall of Classics in Peking
were erected and the books were inscribed on long rows of stone
monuments so that they could never be destroyed again. As a
token of the present attitude of the Imperial family, the Emperor
once in a decade proceeds in solemn state to this temple
and enthroned there expounds a passage of the sacred writings.
For more than two millenniums, the boys of the most numerous
people in the world have committed to memory the Confucian
primer which declares that ``affection between father and son,
concord between husband and wife, kindness on the part of the
elder brother and deference on the part of the younger, order
between seniors and juniors, sincerity between friends and associates,
respect on the part of the ruler and loyalty on that of
the minister--these are the ten righteous courses equally binding
on all men;'' that ``the five regular constituents of our
moral nature are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowledge,
and truth;'' and that ``the five blessings are long life
wealth, tranquillity, desire for virtue and a natural death.''

Surely these are noble principles. That their influence has
been beneficial in many respects, it would be folly to deny.
They have lifted the Chinese above the level of many other
Asiatic nations by creating a more stable social order, by inculcating