ossible three hundred and sixty millions, and this agrees with other
statements that I have seen. If this be so, then the enormous majority
of the people have the bond of a common tongue. And more than that, all
the educated--a small proportion, of course, although many more know a
few symbols--have a common written language.

But as Confucius said thousands of years ago, "not all words are in
books, nor all thoughts in words," and the traditions of nature worship,
Taoism, Buddhism, of Confucius himself, have all put their stamp upon
the Chinese, whether of the North or South, and the journeying coolie
(and it must be remembered he is a great wanderer), no matter where he
goes in China, will find himself among men who recognize the same
obligations, cringe under the same superstitious fears, and strive
toward the same goal of material well-being as himself. Fundamental
differences do certainly exist; North and South China are divided in
speech, and the people are unlike, physically and mentally, but I wonder
if the separation is really deeper than that between the Northern and
the Southern States in America to-day.

We talk of China as in decay, of the Chinese as aged, and the country
as exhausted. It is true the soil has been man-handled for ages, like
the soil of India, but over great areas it constantly renews its
fertility, and, anyway, most of China's resources are underground,
untouched. The Government of last year was rotten to the core; it had
outlived its day. But the Government was not the people, and the Chinese
are neither worn out nor unsound.

I think it must be because everything seems finished in China that
people talk about her decay. The whole thing impresses you as having
been made and completed, after a fashion, a long time ago. Nowhere, save
where the touch of the West has been felt, do you see things being tried
for the first time. Everything has been done in China so many, many
times, for so many centuries, and the results have spread abroad all
over the empire; everywhere, in the remotest corners, you find the same
ingeniously contrived commercial system, the same symmetrical and
complicated social order. Being a very clever and resourceful people
that has lived a long time, the Chinese have found out a great many
things for themselves, and as there was no other clever and resourceful
people at hand to incite them to other and better ways of doing some
things, they went on as they were, neither