In these young men I
see the hope of China. When a little experience has taught them
practical wisdom, I believe they will be able to lead Chinese opinion in
the directions in which it ought to move.
There is one traditional Chinese belief which dies very hard, and that
is the belief that correct ethical sentiments are more important then
detailed scientific knowledge. This view is, of course, derived from the
Confucian tradition, and is more or less true in a pre-industrial
society. It would have been upheld by Rousseau or Dr. Johnson, and
broadly speaking by everybody before the Benthamites. We, in the West,
have now swung to the opposite extreme: we tend to think that technical
efficiency is everything and moral purpose nothing. A battleship may be
taken as the concrete embodiment of this view. When we read, say, of
some new poison-gas by means of which one bomb from an aeroplane can
exterminate a whole town, we have a thrill of what we fondly believe to
be horror, but it is really delight in scientific skill. Science is our
god; we say to it, "Though thou slay me, yet will I trust in thee." And
so it slays us. The Chinese have not this defect, but they have the
opposite one, of believing that good intentions are the only thing
really necessary. I will give an illustration. Forsythe Sherfesee,
Forestry Adviser to the Chinese Government, gave an address at the
British Legation in January 1919 on "Some National Aspects of Forestry
in China.
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