put down Prussian Militarism. The only thing we will have to do, in order to put down the worship of might, to put down German, Prussian or any Militarism in the world, is to think of the other word in that saying of Goethes—Schicklichkeit, Tact, Good Taste and, in thinking of that, to behave with tact and good taste, in short to behave properly; for might, Militarism, even Prussian Militarism can do nothing and will soon find itself useless and unnescessary against people who know how to behave themselves properly. This then is the essence of the Religion of good citizenship; this is the secret of the Chinese civilisation. This is also the secret of the new civilisation of Europe which the German Goethe gave to the people of Europe and the secret of this civilisation is: to put down force, not by force, but by right and tact; in fact to put down force and everything that is evil in this world, not by force, but by ordering our conversation aright and behaving ourselves properly; and ordering our conversation aright and behaving properly means to do right and to behave with tact and good taste.[1] This is the secret, the soul of the Chinese civilisation, the essence of the spirit of the Chinese people, which I have tried in this book to interpret and explain.
Finally I will here conclude with the words with which I concluded the book "Papers from a Viceroy's Yamen" which I wrote after the Boxer trouble in
- ↑ Confucius says, "The moral man, the gentleman by living a life of simple truth and earnestness can bring peace to the world (君子篤恭而天下平)
