aware of his qualities. Against a background of other races you
suddenly perceive him, and can estimate him--fallaciously or no--as you
estimate foreigners.

So seen the Englishman appears as the eternal school-boy. I mean no
insult; I mean to express his qualities as well as his defects. He has
the pluck, the zest, the sense of fair play, the public spirit of our
great schools. He has also their narrowness and their levity. Enter his
office, and you will find him not hurried or worried, not scheming,
skimping, or hustling, but cheery, genial, detached, with an air of
playing at work. As likely as not, in a quarter of an hour he will have
asked you round to the club and offered you a whisky and soda. Dine with
him, and the talk will turn on golf or racing, on shooting, fishing, and
the gymkhana. Or, if you wish to divert it, you must ask him definite
questions about matters of fact. Probably you will get precise and
intelligent replies. But if you put a general question he will flounder
resentfully; and if you generalise yourself you will see him dismissing
you as a windbag. Of the religion, the politics, the manners and customs
of the country in which he lives he will know and care nothing, except
so far as they may touch his affairs. He will never, if he can help it,
leave the limits of the foreign settlement. Physically he oscillates
between his home, his office, the club, and the racecourse; mentally,
between his business and sport. On all general topics his opinions are
second or third hand. They are the ghosts of old prejudices imported
years ago from England, or taken up unexamined from the English
community abroad. And these opinions pass from hand to hand till they
are as similar as pebbles on the shore. In an hour or so you will have
acquired the whole stock of ideas current in the foreign community
throughout a continent. Your only hope of new light is in particular
instances and illustrations. And these, of course, may be had for the
asking.

But the Englishman abroad in some points is the Englishman at his best.
For he is or has been a pioneer, at any rate in China. And pioneering
brings out his most characteristic qualities. He loves to decide
everything on his own judgment, on the spur of the moment, directly on
the immediate fact, and in disregard of remoter contingencies and
possibilities. He needs adventure to bring out his powers, and only
really takes to business when business is something of a "lar