[177] The Works of Mencius, bk. vi, pt. ii, chap. xv, 2.
[178] Ibid. bk. vi, pt. ii, chap. xv, 5.
[179] Ibid. bk. vii, pt. i, chap. xviii, 1.
[180] The Chinese pay worship, it is true, to the multitude of inferior gods of Buddhism, but there is little in these cults calculated to awaken and discipline the moral feelings.
[181] The Religions of China (1881), p. 256.
[182] See Colquhuon, China in Transformation (1898), p. 189.
[183] Reinsch, World Politics (1900), p. 98. In their relations with foreigners the Chinese bankers have won an enviable reputation for integrity and the scrupulous observance of engagements. The word of a Chinaman in financial matters is his bond.
[184] The Lore of Cathay (1901), p. 214.
[185] Froebel has an illuminating comment on the danger to true morality that lurks here: “A life whose ideal value has been perfectly established in experience never aims to serve as a model in its form, but only in its essence, in its spirit. It is the greatest mistake to suppose that spiritual, human perfection can serve as a model in its form. This accounts for the common experience that the taking of such external manifestations of perfection as examples, instead of elevating mankind, checks, nay, represses, its development” (The Education of Man, pt. i, sec. 10).
[186] Etiquette has been well defined as “the formal expression of courtesy,” and courtesy as “morality in trifles.” In Japan, as Kikuchi informs us, etiquette forms a part of the moral instruction in the schools. See Sadler, Moral Instruction and Training in Schools, vol. ii, p. 342.