an absolute authority over the marriage of children;
young people are allowed to have no will
in the matter. Sometimes two friends bind
themselves by an oath to marry their unborn
babes, if they turn out of different sexes. The
promise is sealed by tearing their tunics, each
giving to the other the portion rent off. Unions
formed under such conditions as these are
scarcely likely to be of long duration.
Incompatibilities of temper soon declare themselves,
and the woman, being the weakest, suffers the
most; for the husband has complete authority
over her. He may ill treat her with impunity,
and may compel her to associate with several
secondary wives.

Nevertheless, Buddhism and Lamaïsm, which
permit women to take a certain part in public
worship, afford an opportunity for some of them
to escape from the sorrows of social life by
making a religious and monastic profession,
under the title of Bonzesses; and their number
has considerably increased under the Tartar
domination. There is also a female sect called
the Abstinents, especially in the southern
provinces. It is a corporation of ascetics, who
make a vow to abstain from everything that has
enjoyed life, and to eat nothing but vegetables.
They go in procession to certain pagodas, and
hope, as the reward of their devotion, to obtain
the transmigration of their souls into the bodies
of men—the ne plus ultra of their ambition.

The low opinion which the Chinese entertain
of women may be gathered from their proverbs
relating to them: A bad husband is sometimes a
good father; a bad wife is never a good mother.
—A husband must be very foolish to be afraid
of his wife; but a wife is a hundred thousand
times more foolish not to be afraid of her
husband.—Four things are required of a woman:
that virtue dwell in her heart, that modesty
shine on her forehead, that gentleness flow from
her lips, and that work employ her hands.—To
cultivate virtue is the science of men, and to
renounce science is the virtue of women.—
Silence and blushes are the eloquence of woman;
modesty is her courage.—A woman never praises
without calumniating.—Their tongue is women's
sword, and they never let it grow rusty.

In spite of the differences of aptitude, usages,
and local manners which each district of China
impresses on its inhabitants, a general type
reunites them and forms them into a people very
distinct from every other. This uniformity is
especially manifested in their traditional habits
of politeness, whose rules date from an epoch
three thousand years ago. In this respect, all
the Chinese appear to have been brought up in
the same school, and are finished Tartufes of
urbanity, courtesy, and flattering speeches. But
this politeness, acquired from their earliest childhood,
has become so inherent in their social life
as to seem perfectly natural. The eulogistic,
emphatical, and hyberbolical expressions with
which they mutually address each other, form an
integral part of their conversation, and add to
it a certain grace by which the traveller is
deceived; for he takes for natural amenity of
character what are merely external acts of pure
convention. For instance, they never state
their own opinion without adding that it is only
the notion of a stupid man, of a narrow
intellect; and they never discuss the opinions of
others without treating them as brilliantly luminous
and vast in conception. There are a great
number of metaphorical expressions full of
respect and humility which are current in
everyday language.

If the Chinese were to practise strictly their
traditional morality, and notably that of
Confucius, whom they incessantly quote, they would
be the most just, liberal, merciful, and affable
people in the world, the most scrupulous
observers of family and social duties. There can
hardly be found a theory of, ethics more
complete, more thoroughly impregnated with good
common sense, than that which is contained in
the classic books, the basis of their education.
But if moral laws are not enforced by religious
doctrines they soon fall into neglect, through
ignorance, through the carelessness of the
government, through the exclusive attention paid
to material interests, and especially through the
abject and uneducated condition of the women,
which prevents their exerting any effectual and
humanising influence. This fact alone suffices
to explain the moral and intellectual degradation
of the Chinese people.

The veneration, approaching to a sort of
worship, which is paid to the memory of Confucius,
is addressed rather to his doctrines than to his
person. The temples erected in his honour are
monuments dedicated to the fame of his books.
His maxims profess to have the force of law for
the public authorities as well as for heads of
families; the founders of dynasties, and even
the Tartar conquerors, were accepted by the
nation because they promised to rule according
to his principles.

There circulate in China Collections of
Thoughts and Proverbs, forming a sort of
catechisms for the uses of persons of all ages. Some
of them are not without their merit. For
instance: The sage does good exactly as he
breathes; it is the necessity of his life. It is
possible to be decent without being well
conducted; but it is impossible to be well
conducted without being decent.—Raillery is the
lightning-flash darting out of the thunder-cloud
of calumny.—Man may bow before virtue, but
virtue never bows before man.—Virtue does not
give talents, but supplies their place; talents
neither give nor serve as the substitute for
virtue.—Ceremonial is the smoke of friendship.
—If the heart goes only half way with the
intellect, the most solid thoughts give nothing but a
glass of light; this is the reason why science is
so little persuasive and probity so eloquent.

Women's minds are made of quicksilver, and
their heart is of wax. [This maxim might be
interpreted in woman's favour, if we take its
meaning to be that she has a ready intelligence
and a tender heart; but such an interpretation
is contrary to the opinion of the Chinese
themselves.]—Every bit you shorten of a woman's