ride of the people.
The matter to be noted here is that the European civilization
encountered but a few obstacles, notwithstanding its inopportune
introduction, and was soon adopted with determined zeal. The like
progressive phenomenon on a smaller scale is also recurring in Korea,
but of this later.

II. Having thus seen from well known historical examples in Europe and
Asia that the conservatism is not in itself a force strong enough to
resist progress, which leads to the establishment of constitutional
government, let us proceed to meet the second objection, namely: the
prevailing ignorance among the Asiatic nations. Here the nature of our
inquiry involves three distinct topics. 1. Was the general
intelligence of the Japanese people, before they came into contact
with the Western civilization, higher than that of the other Asiatic
nations? 2. Is there not a peculiar characteristic among the Japanese
which impels them to progress? 3. Consequent upon the exposition of
these two topics, investigation must also be made as to why the
Chinese Empire does not show a similar progressive tendency.

1. Besides being the most dangerous enemy of representative government
after its establishment, ignorance is most hostile to its
establishment. _Prima facie_, people must possess a certain degree of
capacity, mental and moral, to understand what civilization is and
what representative government is. The Batta of Sumatra may have their
own alphabet, and the Fans of the West Coast may excel in iron
work,[8] but even these fall short of the pre-requisites, not
intellectually only, but morally also. We cannot conceive of them,
seated around a camp-fire, discussing the merits of two chambers
system, or defining the rights and duties of a citizen, while their
vile lips are stained with the blood of their fellow-man, whose flesh
they have just devoured. Not to expatiate further on this self-evident
fact, it is certain that the Japanese people were sufficiently
intelligent to understand and appreciate the Western ideas, when they
were thrust to their notice. Certain, too, that in some branches of
aesthetic art, they were somewhat superior to the neighboring nations.
But beyond this, thirty years ago, a careful observer could have
detected in the Japanese people no conspicuous intellectual
attainment, except, of course, such points of dissimilarity as exist
between any two nations equally civilized. Japan, Korea, and China had
the same s