"Virtue is
never friendless," said Confucius, and, as society is constituted in
China, this is literally true. If this is not so in America I fear
there is something wrong with that boasted civilization, and that their
material triumphs over the physical forces of nature have been paid
dearly for by a loss of insight into her profound spiritualities.
Perhaps some will understand when I quote Lao Tsze's address to
Confucius on "Simplicity". "The chaff from winnowing will blind a man.
Mosquitoes will bite a man and keep him awake all night, and so it is
with all the talk of yours about charity and duty to one's neighbor, it
drives one crazy. Sir, strive to keep the world in its original
simplicity--why so much fuss? The wind blows as it listeth, so let
virtue establish itself. The swan is white without a daily bath, and
the raven is black without dyeing itself. When the pond is dry and the
fishes are gasping for breath it is of no use to moisten them with a
little water or a little sprinkling. Compared to their original and
simple condition in the pond and the rivers it is nothing."

Henry Ward Beecher says, "Wealth may not produce civilization, but
civilization produces money," and in my opinion while wealth may be
used to promote happiness and health it as often injures both.
Happiness is the product of liberality, intelligence and service to
others, and the reflex of happiness is health. My contention is that
the people who possess these good qualities in the greatest degree are
the most civilized. Now civilization, as mentioned in the previous
chapter, was born in the East and travelled westward. The law of
nature is spiral, and inasmuch as Eastern civilization taught the
people of the West, so Western civilization, which is based upon
principles native to the East, will return to its original source. No
nation can now remain shut up within itself without intercourse with
other nations; the East and the West can no longer exist separate and
apart. The new facilities for transportation and travel by land and
water bring all nations, European, American, Asiatic and African, next
door to each other, and when the art of aviation is more advanced and
people travel in the air as safely as they now cross oceans, the
relationships of nations will become still closer.

What effect will this have on mankind? The first effect will be, I
should say, greater stability. As interests become common, destructive
comba