Complete. Translation of J. N. Jordan for the Nineteenth Century, 1884.

ONE evening, in conversation with Sung Sheng, he expressed his belief that the systems of government and civilization prevailing in the West bear a close resemblance to the institutions of China in the time of the Chow dynasty. Lao Tsze, he said, after serving as a minister of that dynasty, had gone to the West and transplanted the laws and usages of China into Western soil. The assertion does not, unfortunately, admit of positive proof, but the idea is one of some interest and novelty. I remarked, in reply, that Europe, having been once inhabited by wild tribes, had in all probability derived its literature and political systems from Asia, whence they had gradually spread westward, and this I considered the explanation of the resemblance between European habits and ways and those of China in olden times. I used to tell my French interpreter in jest that China’s sacred Emperor descended in an unbroken line through history, and that even as regards Presidents we had Yao and Shun, the best that ever existed. This was of course merely a joke, but still it is plain that all Western institutions have existed in the past in China. For example, in the West articles of household use are invariably carved and engraved with taste and neatness, the idea being derived from the inscriptions found upon goblets, cups, and like utensils of antique date in China. It may be said that steamers, steam engines, and such ingenious contrivances were unknown in past ages. By such an assertion, however, the fact is ignored that mechanical ingenuity depends upon material resources, and varies according to a nation’s prosperity or decay. When material resources fail mechanical arts fall into neglect. In olden times China had no lack of mechanical appliances, but as her national prosperity gradually declined, her people fell into idle and thriftless habits, and mechanical arts gradually died out. As, by a glance at what Europe now is, we may see what China once was, so by noting what China now is, we may learn what Europe will one day become. The time will arrive when Western workcraft, now so active and superior, will grow inept, and Western ingenuity give way to homelike simplicity. The fact is, the earth’s productions are not sufficient to provide for the manifold wants of its countless people, and deterioration is one of nature’s laws.