Note 76 — Chapter XIV · EDUCATION AND THE PUBLIC JUSTICE

It is significant to notice in this connection that previous to his several commissions from the Korean Emperor, this writer held a quite different view from that which he afterward advocated with regard to the underlying principle of all the recent relations between the two countries. In the same article he says: “The present chaotic state of the national finances and of popular discontent, show something of what Russian influence has accomplished in Korea; and the people are coming to realize the fact. They are passionately attached to the theory of national ‘independence.’ We say theory advisedly. This word ‘independence’ is a sort of fetich to which they bow, but they think that independence means liberation from outside control alone, forgetting that genuine independence means likewise a liberation from evil influences within, and that liberty, so far from being carte blanche to do as one pleases, is in truth the apotheosis of law.”