Note 425 — Chapter XVIII · THE FUTURE

There are many Chinese who speak English fluently, and the number is increasing daily, but as a rule such persons have devoted so much time to the acquirement of a totally alien tongue, and "Western learning" generally, that they have been obliged to neglect the culture of their own country. (One of the greatest dangers ahead of China is the possibility that her foreign-educated students may, through ignorance, grow contemptuous of the intellectual achievements of their ancestors, and that Chinese culture may consequently suffer a long, though probably it would not be a permanent, eclipse.) There are also some Englishmen who can speak Chinese fluently, but very few of them have had the time or inclination to acquire a sound knowledge of Chinese literature. Thus it too often happens that an educated Englishman and an educated Chinese whose natures are such that they might become intimate friends, fail to become so through inability to exchange ideas in the region of politics, philosophy, literature or art. A German and an Englishman, even if they disagree on the subject of naval armaments, may find themselves at one in the matter of the music of Mozart or the psychological condition of the mind of Hamlet. Between an Englishman and a Frenchman a friendship may spring up on the basis of a common admiration for the prose of Flaubert or Anatole France or the philosophy of Bergson. But though there are now many Chinese who can discourse fluently on evolution or the conservation of energy, how many Western students of Chinese would bear themselves creditably in a conversation with a Chinese scholar on the ethics of Chu Hsi or the poetry of Su Tung-po? In the vast majority of cases, conversation between a Chinese and an Englishman (unless the relation between them is that of teacher and pupil) is very apt to degenerate into the merest "small talk" and exchange of civilities, and it is obvious that friendships can hardly be built up on so slender a foundation as this. But among those Europeans and Chinese who have successfully surmounted the barrier of language there is, I believe, nothing to prevent the growth of sincere friendships. Yet it should be observed that a recognition of the possibility of intimate social intercourse between European and Chinese does not necessarily imply an acceptance of the view that the races may safely and successfully intermarry. This point must be emphasised, for my own views on the subject have been to some extent misapprehended by a very friendly critic in The Spectator (August 22, 1908, p. 268). This question is really one for biological experts, and no definite answer has yet been given to it, though Herbert Spencer, we know, was strongly of opinion that the white and yellow races should not mingle their blood. From the physiological point of view the question is, of course, in no way concerned with any fanciful theories as to one race being "higher" than another. (For Herbert Spencer's views see the Appendix to Lafcadio Hearn's Japan: an Interpretation.)