originality for himself. Lowell was as shrewd as usual when he asserted that "if a poet resolve to be original, it will end commonly in his being peculiar." And even the youngest of poets ought to be able to seize the difference between originality and peculiarity. It was not by straining for peculiarity that Milton made himself one of the most original of English poets, but by loving imitation of that one of his predecessors whom he most admired. Milton was the poetical son of Spenser," so Dryden declared; "for we have our lineal descents and clans as well as other families." Then he added his direct testimony: "Milton has acknowledged to me that Spenser was his original." Though Milton chose to confess the imitation of Spenser, it is easy for us to perceive now that he had also not a few other originals before him—Sophocles and Virgil, Dante and Shakespeare. Stevenson said in his own confession: "Perhaps I hear some one cry out: But this is not the way to be original!' It is not; nor is there any way but to be born so. Nor yet, if you are born original, is there anything in this training that shall clip the wings of your originality."

As

No authors have ultimately attained to a truer originality than Shakespeare and Molière, an originality both of form and of content. Shakespeare was able to give us at last the final model of modern tragedy, and Molière succeeded in perfecting the final model of modern comedy. If they had indulged in the delightful amusement of talking about themselves, they would both have avowed unhesitatingly that they also had been sedulous apes in their youthful years of authorship when they were cautiously feeling their way and before they had come into their own. Molière's earliest pieces are so closely in accord with the tradition of the Italian comedy of masks that the "Étourdi," for example, might be held up for study as the finest specimen of this species. The Italians supplied him with a ready-made mold into which he could pour whatever he had of his own.

Shakespeare started out also as a humble imitator, not of an exotic form such as tempted Molière, but of several specific predecessors in his own language. He was glaringly unoriginal in his early

pieces, even in "Love's Labor's Lost," almost the only play of his the actual source of which has not yet been discovered. In "Love's Labor's Lost "he was imitating Lyly; in "Titus Andronicus he was imitating Kyd; in "Richard II” he was imitating Marlowe. At first he played their game; they were his teachers then, although he was soon able to beat them at it. In these 'prentice plays there is to be detected very little of his individuality, and we can catch in them only a faint premonition of the richer Shakespearean accent which was in time to characterize all that he put his hand to. They are not yet marked boldly with his image and superscription. They are the trial essays of a clever and ambitious young fellow, experimental and almost empty when compared with the certainty and the fullness of his riper works after he had found himself, after he had come into his own, and after he had amply developed his originality. And it was by the imitation of Kyd and Marlowe that he taught himself now to tell a story on the stage. When his hour came, he was ready to do loftier things than they had ever dared; but it was only by the aid of the weapons that he had wrested from their hands that he was able to vanquish them.

Brunetière, to whom we owe the first serious attempt to study the evolution of the several literary species, comedy and tragedy, the novel and the lyric, maintained that these types were transmitted by direct imitation, and that they were modified by deliberate refusal to imitate. Whereas Regnard and Marivaux and Beaumarchais continued the comedy of Molière, each of them adapting the tradition to his own need of self-expression, Racine willfully reacted against the influence of Corneille and sought to make tragedy in certain of its manifestations exactly the opposite of what it had been in the hands of his mighty predecessor. So we can discern one explanation for the rigid skeleton of Ben Jonson's tragedies in his desire to depart from the looser Shakespearean formula; he was subject to its influence as fully as if he had accepted it instead of rejecting it violently. Racine and Jonson refused to do what their older contemporaries had been wont to

her national courage and prowess. Japan's defeat of Russia was not the victory of the East over the West, but of the West over the East, for by that victory she has convinced every Eastern nation both of the possibility of an Eastern nation's accepting Western civilization and of the good results that will certainly follow. As the story of the defeat of Russia is told in the bazaars of India, or in the streets of Constantinople, or in the Chinese tea-shops, the truth bursts in on the Oriental mind that the acceptance of Western civilization is a possibility for these countries too. But if this victory has affected Turkey and India, it has in a greater degree affected China. China was the unwilling spectator of the titanic conflict, a province of China was actually the scene of that struggle, and China has realized the lessons of the victory. China, therefore, has turned her eyes to the West, and one of the most momentous changes in the history of the world is developing before our eyes, namely, the acceptance by the Chinese of the civilization of the West. Four hundred millions of population-more than a fourth of the total of humanity-will be added to the world which describes itself by the epithet Western.

America has had a large share in causing this movement, both directly and indirectly directly by sending out to the mission field some of the finest of her sons, who have preached the cause of Christian ity with eloquence and commended it by self-sacrifice; indirectly by being largely instrumental in making that change in the opinion of Japan which has so powerfully influenced China. Japan's success has had the effect that all success has it has produced imitators of her methods. Japan was the land of mystery, and, ignorant of the progress of the West, was at the mercy of the weakest of Western nations. Japan is now, after the defeat of Russia, a world power before whose armed might the haughtiest of Western nations has had to yield. Can any one wonder that China, looking at Japan, has determined to follow in her steps and tread the same path that has led Japan to victory? For, after all, what is Japan compared to China?—a small country, a tiny country, one which has but an eighth part or less of her populalation. Yet what is China compared to Japan in the eyes of the world? China

is powerless and Japan is powerful; China cannot even secure her own territory from invasion, while Japan is able to invade the territory of others.

Can you wonder that China is daily saying, "I must follow in the footsteps of Japan," and therefore is trying hard to acquire the Western knowledge which has made Japan so great? This is the great fact which meets the world. The world may be ignorant, the world may be indifferent, but facts are facts, and facts prove stubborn things.

Of course this is not yet an accomplished fact. Even now the great mass of toiling, hard-working, non-thinking China is absolutely Chinese. Even now the old conservative Chinese gentleman is Chinese. But the young men, the thinking men. the coming men, are no longer learned only in Chinese lore and Chinese culture. These have turned to the West and have tried to learn the great learning of the West, after the example of the Japanese. They have sent their sons to Tokyo, and they have done more. They have sent their sons to the Western universities. Already Chinese students in America may be numbered by the hundreds.

It is hard for an American to realize what a sacrifice this means. Living is cheap in China. A ten-cent piece brings as much to the Chinese as the dollar does to the American.

Multiply the cost tenfold, and then think what it would mean to send your child to China to receive an education, and you have some idea of what China, either through her provincial governments or through private individuals, is paying for Western education. America has indeed been forward in welcoming the sons of China to her universities; nay, she has done more-she has sent some of the ablest of her sons to educate the Chinese. No one who has seen the splendid educational institutions raised by Americans in China will doubt that America has been China's greatest friend in this matter.

From Canton in the far south to Peking in the north you will find these splendid monuments of America's generosity and of her faithfulness to the highest ideals of education and of religion. I

recall an evening walk in that hot and crowded city of Canton, and the sense of peace that came over us as we passed from the noise and smell to the supreme quiet of the Presbyterian College, and of the hospital where women learn to give their sisters the help and comfort of Western medicine.

And again I recall that wonderful work which President Hawks Pott is doing near Shanghai, where he is training boys who will afterwards prove to be the guides of their fatherland.

Or again, President Anderson's work at Suchow, where he is molding the young men of that district to be wise and prudent leaders of the people.

Or, again, the great work that the Methodists and Christians are carrying on at Nanking. Boone College, Wuchang, again, under President Jackson, adorns China with knowledge and America with a reputation for being the nation that encourages enlightenment.

President Lowry, in Peking, is a fit representative in the capital of China of the zeal and energy of the Methodist educator. While the Nestor among educators, Professor Martin, is no longer able to stand in the forefront of the educational world, still by his wisdom he encourages those on whom the burden of the day now rests.

Professor Sheffield shows at Tungchow the best example of that which we should all desire-co-operation in educational work.

But why should I fill your pages with examples of American zeal for education in China, when the whole world knows how Yale, in the face of persecution, has most ably maintained its cause, at infinite risk, in Changsha? America has indeed done nobly, yet it would be idle to pretend that enough, or anything like enough, has been done.

After all, it is but the fringe of this subject that she has touched, and, if the work is to be of lasting benefit to China, much more remains to be done.

China is wandering and groping about her, but she has found at present neither educational nor spiritual light. I had the privilege of visiting many schools in China under the national authorities, and I never saw anything that showed that China had

yet attained what she sought. The effect left on my mind by what I saw was that of a huge blind being seeking for and craving the light, yet unable to find what she sought.

After my first visit to China I put these matters before some friends at Oxford and Cambridge, only to find that they were but too thoroughly alive to the whole difficulties of the problem-for there are many difficulties-and yet were most desirous of doing what they could to help China in her need. They appointed committees who examined and discussed the whole situation, and asked information from every one whom they thought would be able to give it. The plan that seemed to commend itself was that they should take the lead in founding an establishment for higher education, or a university which should focus all the disjointed and isolated efforts that are being made towards education; that it should not supplant, so much as support, work that was already established.

Two facts emerged from the very first; namely, that the splendid work that the missionaries have done in the past and the great hold they have on the sympathies of the men who are forming "Young China" entitle them to receive, even if they do not compel the home universities to give, every consideration. The second view was somewhat similar; namely, that without co-operation between those interested in education no efficient work can be done. With these two views before them, the following scheme was evolved. First, that the university should be provided on a dual basis in which the position which the missionary bodies have attained should be frankly recognized. Second, that educational matters should be controlled by educators. The final plan evolved was that a university should be founded which should consist of a central institution which should teach but not lodge its pupils, and, second, of hostels or colleges which should lodge, feed, and control the students and also give them religious teachings.

In some ways the constitution of the university would resemble that of the United States. The university would represent the Federal body, while the individual States would be represented by

the hostels or colleges. The colleges would be self-governing, and would as a rule be controlled by some missionary or other body which had educational interest in China.

In every way it is hoped that the moral influence of sincere men would be brought to bear on boys during the most impressionable period of their lives, and that boyhood should not receive that which is most dangerous to all youth, a confused idea of right and wrong.

The same missionary body, for instance, which had hitherto trained and tended the boy would still lead him while he trod the paths of higher knowledge.

We know even in the West how often the sudden rush of great ideas and wide views on the sensitive intellect brought up in beautiful but narrow surroundings has, instead of a beneficial, a pernicious effect. The narrow view is widened too roughly, the great ideas tend not to illuminate but to darken, with the result that the greatness of human knowledge produces a pessimist who can believe only in things material. But with the Chinaman the effect is far more extreme. His original ideas of right and wrong have been shaken by Western knowledge. Western knowledge and Western civilization are too often destructive and not constructive. They remove all the old moral landmarks, and, unless great trouble is taken, leave man in the desert of life without anything to guide him through its dangers. The great function of the hostels would be to build up character; they would therefore seek not only to preserve that which was good in the Chinese ethics, but, where destruction in the ethics is inevitable, they would try to replace it by ethics founded upon Christianity. It would be the primary duty of the hostel to teach religion as the foundation of all character. And, in pursuance of this aim, the hostels would be encouraged to found the preceptorial system, a system which is also very beneficial in securing thoroughness in intellectual culture.

On the other hand, the university would abstain from giving any religious teaching, though all its teaching would be absolutely sympathetic with the missionary work. In fact, the whole faculty would be in full sympathy with missionary ideals. The university would teach knowledge

from a Christian, but a non-sectarian, point of view, while it is hoped that the greater bulk of the hostels would be denominational. The university would be furnished with all that expensive apparatus which is at the present time necessary to understand the most advanced science, with laboratories and libraries and so on.

I understand that the educators of America have received the idea favorably, and that they will appoint a committee, as representative of the leading educational opinion as that which represents the English universities, to negotiate with them as to the appointment of a Board of Governors and Trustees to be the alternate controlling body. It is not, of course, suggested that the direction of the university should be in the home lands. The Home Board would appoint a Committee of Management to represent them on the spot. For no university for China can ever really serve China unless it is directed in China.

And here I may say that this university is not to be an alien but a national institution. From the first Chinese are to be associated with its management, and, when China develops professors of equal learning to the educators of the West, it is intended that the West shall yield to the East and the staff shall become Chinese.

Sub

Before any action was taken this scheme was submitted to the mission bodies in China. It was put before them in Peking and Hankow, in Nanking and in Shanghai, and was in all cases welcomed. sequently the Home Boards both in America and in England were asked, and again the answer was satisfactory. I think I may say that the three points that attracted the mission bodies were, first, that no missionary body is to be asked to sacrifice convictions in this matter. Much as the mission bodies long for union work and co-operation, many have been deterred from taking any active steps by a fear that co-operation must be dearly purchased at the price of sincerity. Many feel that they cannot conscientiously agree with the teaching of their brother missionaries, and yet to express that disagreement to their pupils would be to render all union work inefficient, for nothing is so fatal to the usefulness of a teacher as to