chapter 4
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Now the first thing, I think, which will strike you in the old ese type of humanity is that there is nothing wild, savage or ferocious in him. Using a term which is applied to animals, we may say of the real aman that he is a domesticated creature. Take a man of the lowest class of the population in a and, I think, you will agree with me that there is less of animality in him, less of the wild animal, of what the Germans call Rohheit, than you will find in a man of the same class in a European society. In fact, the one word, it seems to me, which will sum up the impression which the ese type of humanity makes upon you is the English word "gentle." By gentleness I do not mean softness of nature or weak submissiveness. "The docility of the ese," says the late Dr. D. J. Macgowan, "is not the docility of a brokeed, emasculated people. " But by the word " gentle" I mean absence of hardness, harshness, roughness, or violence, in fact of anything which jars upon you. There is irue ese type of humanity an air, so to speak, of a quiet, sober, chastened mellowness, such as you find in a piece of well-tempered metal. Ihe very physical and moral imperfes of a real aman are, if not redeemed, .９９ｌｉb. least softened by this quality of gentleness in him. The real aman may be coarse, but there is no grossness in his coarseness. The real aman may be ugly, but there is no hideousness in his ugliness. The real aman may be vulgar, but there is no aggressiveness, no blatan his vulgarity. The real aman may be stupid, but there is no absurdity in his stupidity. The real aman may be ing, but there is no deep malignity in his ing. In fact what I want to say is, that even in the faults and blemishes of body, mind and character of the real aman, there is nothing which revolts you. It is seldom that you will find a real aman of the old school, even of the lowest type, who is positively repulsive.I say that the total impression which the ese type of humanity makes upon you is that he is gehat he is inexpressibly gentle. When you analyse this quality of inexpressible gentleness in the real aman, you will find that it is the the product of a bination of two things, namely, sympathy and intelligence. I have pared the ese type of humanity to a domesticated animal. Now what is that which makes a domesticated animal so different from a wild animal? It is something in the domesticated animal which we reise as distinctively human. But what is distinctively human as distinguished from what is animal? It is intelligence. But the intelligence of a domesticated animal is not a thinking intellige is not an intelligence whies to him from reasoning. her does it e to him from instinct, such as the intelligence of the fox, _ the vulpielligence whiows where eatable chis are to be found. This intelligence whies from instinct, of the fox, all,_even wild, animals have. But this, what may be called human intelligence of a domesticated animal is something quite different from the vulpine or animal intelligehis intelligence of a domesticated animal is an intelligence whies not from reasoning nor from instinct, but from sympathy, from a feeling of love and attat. A thh-bred Arab horse uands his English m<var>?</var>aster not because he has studied English grammar nor because he has an instinct for the English language, but because he loves and is attached to his master. This is what I call human intelligence, as distinguished from mere vulpine or animal intellige is the possession of this human quality which distinguishes domesticated from wild animals. In the same way, I say, it is the possession of this sympathetid true human intelligence, which gives to the ese type of humanity, to the real aman, his inexpressible gentleness.
I once read somewhere a statement made by a fner who had lived in both tries, that the longer a fner lives in Japan the more he dislikes the Japanese, whereas the longer a fner lives in a the more he likes the ese. I do not know if what is said of the Japanese here, is true. But, I think, all of you who have lived in a will agree with me that what is here said of the ese is true. It is well-known fact that the liking_you may call it the taste for the ese_grows upon the fhe longer he lives in this try. There is an indescribable something in the ese people which, in spite of their want of habits of cl<cite></cite>eanliness and refi, in spite of their mas of mind and character, makes fners like them as fners like no other people. This indescribable something which I have defined as gentleness, softens and mitigates, if it does not redeem, the physical and moral defects of the ese in the hearts of fners. This gentleness again is, as I have tried to show you, the product of what I call sympathetic or true human intelligen intelligence whies not from reasoning nor from instinct, but from sympathy_from the power of sympathy. Now what is the secret of the power of sympathy of the ese people?
I will here veo give you an explanation_a hypothesis, if you like to call it so_of the secret of this power of sympathy in the ese people and my explanation is this. The ese people have this power, this strong power of sympathy, because they live wholly, or almost wholly, a life of the heart. The whole life of aman is a life of feeling_not feeling in the sense of sensation whies from the bodily ans, nor feeling in the sense of passions which flow, as you would say, from the nervous system, but feeling in the sense of emotion or human affe whies from the deepest part of our nature_the heart or soul. Indeed I may say here that the real aman lives so much a life of emotion or human affe, a life of the soul, that he may be said sometimes to more than he ought to do, even the necessary requirements of the life of the senses of a man living in this world posed of body and soul. That is the true explanation of the insensibility of the ese to the physical disforts of un surroundings and want of refi. But that is her here nor there.
The ese people, I say, have the power of sympathy because they live wholly a life of the heart_a life of emotion or human affe. Let me here, first of all, give you two illustrations of what I mean by living a life of the heart. My first illustration is this. Some of you may have personally known an old friend and colleague of mine in Wug_known him when he was Minister of the Fn Office here in Peking_Mr. Liang Tun-yen, Mr. Liang told me, when he first received the appoi of the s Taotai of Hankow, that what made him wish and strive to bee a great mandarin, to wear the red button, and what gave him pleasure then in receiving this appoi, was not because he cared for the red button, not because he would heh be rid indepe, <big>９9liｂ.</big>_and we were all of us very poor then in Wug, _but because he wao rejoice, because this promotion and adva of his would gladden the heart of his old mother in ton. That is what I mean when I say that the ese people live a life of the heart_a life of emotion or human affe.
My other illustration is this. A Scotch friend of mine in the s told me he once had a ese servant who erfect scamp, who lied, who "squeezed, " and who was always gambling, but when my friend fell ill with typhoid fever in an out-of-the-ort where he had nn friend to attend to him, this awful scamp of a ese servant nursed him with a care aion which he could not have expected from an intimate friend or near relation. Indeed I think what was once said of a woman in the Bible may also be said, not only of the ese servant, but of the ese people generally:_"Much is fiven them, because they love much. " The eyes and uanding of the fner in a see mas and blemishes in the habits and in the character of the ese, but his heart is attracted to them, beca<bdo>?</bdo>use the ese have a heart, or, as I said, live a life of the heart_a life of emotion or human affe.
百度搜索 The Spirit of the Chinese People 天涯 或 The Spirit of the Chinese People 天涯在线书库 即可找到本书最新章节.