orthy of note than their
ideas of the meaning and end of punishment, of its scope and its limits.
It is so very different from ours. As in our religion, so in our laws:
we believe in mercy at one time and in vengeance at another. We believe
in vicarious punishment and vicarious salvation; they believe in
absolute justice--always the same, eternal and unchangeable as the laws
of the stars. We purposely make punishment degrading; they think it
should be elevating, that in its purifying power lies its sole use and
justification. We believe in tearing a soiled garment; they think it
ought to be washed.

Surely these are great differences, surely thoughts like these,
engraven in the hearts of a young people, will lead, in the great and
glorious future that lies before them, to a conception of justice, to a
method of dealing with crime, very different from what we know
ourselves. They are now very much as we were sixteen centuries ago, when
the Romans ruled us. Now we are a greater people, our justice is better,
our prisons are better, our morality is inconceivably better than
Imperial Rome ever dreamt of. And so with these people, when their time
shall come, when they shall have grown out of childhood into manhood,
when they shall have the wisdom and strength and experience to put in
force the convictions that are in their hearts, it seems to me that they
will bring out of these convictions something more wonderful than we
to-day have dreamt of.

CHAPTER IX

HAPPINESS

'The thoughts of his heart, these are the wealth of a man.'
_Burmese saying._

As I have said, there was this very remarkable fact in Burma--that when
you left the king, you dropped at once to the villager. There were no
intermediate classes. There were no nobles, hereditary officers, great
landowners, wealthy bankers or merchants.

Then there is no caste; there are no guilds of trade, or art, or
science. If a man discovered a method of working silver, say, he never
hid it, but made it common property. It is very curious how absolutely
devoid Burma is of the exclusiveness of caste so universal in India, and
which survives to a great extent in Europe. The Burman is so absolutely
enamoured of freedom, that he cannot abide the bonds which caste
demands. He will not bind himself with other men for a slight temporal
advantage; he does not consider it worth the trouble. He prefers
remaining free