under which the people prospered, had grown corrupt and helpless,
and the country had yielded to the invaders and passed under the
terrible tyranny of the Tartars.

Yet there were true patriots among the Chinese who were neither
discouraged by these conditions nor blind to the real cause of their
misfortunes. They realized that the easy conquest of their country
and the utter disregard by their people of the bad government which
had preceded it, showed that something was wrong with themselves.

Too wise to exhaust their land by carrying on a hopeless war,
they sought rather to get a better government by deserving it,
and worked for the general enlightenment, believing that it would
offer the most effective opposition to oppression, for they knew well
that an intelligent people could not be kept enslaved. Furthermore,
they understood that, even if they were freed from foreign rule, the
change would be merely to another tyranny unless the darkness of the
whole people were dispelled. The few educated men among them would
inevitably tyrannize over the ignorant many sooner or later, and it
would be less easy to escape from the evils of such misrule, for the
opposition to it would be divided, while the strength of union would
oppose any foreign despotism. These true patriots were more concerned
about the welfare of their country than ambitious for themselves,
and they worked to prepare their countrymen for self-government by
teaching self-control and respect for the rights of others.

No public effort toward popular education can be made under a bad
government. Those opposed to Manchu rule knew of a secret society
that had long existed in spite of the laws against it, and they used
it as their model in organizing a new society to carry out their