European intervention paralyses every attempt they make
to establish order on their own lines. In the Ming days China did
not reek. . . . And, anyhow, Benham, it's better than the silly
waste of London. . . ."
And in a little while Prothero discovered that China had tried
Benham and found him wanting, centuries and dynasties ago.
What was this new-fangled aristocratic man, he asked, but the ideal
of Confucius, the superior person, "the son of the King"? There you
had the very essence of Benham, the idea of self-examination, self-
preparation under a vague Theocracy. ("Vaguer," said Benham, "for
the Confucian Heaven could punish and reward.") Even the elaborate
sham modesty of the two dreams was the same. Benham interrupted and
protested with heat. And this Confucian idea of the son of the
King, Prothero insisted, had been the cause of China's paralysis.
"My idea of nobility is not traditional but expectant," said Benham.
"After all, Confucianism has held together a great pacific state far
longer than any other polity has ever lasted.
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