consequence of the serious or prolonged illness of parents, it is very
usual for sons and daughters to repair to the municipal temple and pray
that a certain number of years may be cut off their own span of life and
added to that of the sick parents in question.

Let us now pause to take stock of some of the results which have accrued
from the operation and influence of Confucianism during such a long
period, and over such swarming myriads of the human race. It is
a commonplace in the present day to assert that the Chinese are
hardworking, thrifty, and sober--the last-mentioned, by the way, in a
land where drunkenness is not regarded as a crime. Shallow observers
of the globe-trotter type, who have had their pockets picked by
professional thieves in Hong-Kong, and even resident observers who have
not much cultivated their powers of observation and comparison, will
assert that honesty is a virtue denied to the Chinese; but those who
have lived long in China and have more seriously devoted themselves to
discover the truth, may one and all be said to be arrayed upon the other
side. The amount of solid honesty to be met with in every class, except
the professionally criminal class, is simply astonishing. That the word
of the Chinese merchant is as good as his bond has long since become a
household word, and so it is in other walks of life. With servants from
respectable families, the householder need have no fear for his goods.
"Be loyal," says the native maxim, "to the master whose rice you eat;"
and this maxim is usually fulfilled to the letter. Hence, it is that
many foreigners who have been successful in their business careers, take
care to see, on their final departure from the East, that the old and
faithful servant, often of twenty to thirty years' standing, shall have
some provision for himself and his family. In large establishments,
especially banks, in which great interests are at stake, it is customary
for the Chinese staff to be guaranteed by some wealthy man (or firm),