Counsels of Perfection 253
It will take time to win them. It has taken a century of encroachment to fill their hearts with fear of you. But you know that there is nothing, save fear of you, to cause them to give a second thought to Russia, far away across the dreadful deserts. Then remove the fear of you in Tibetan hearts, and you thus remove the fear of Russia in yours. It is possible that this should be done. The whole history and delineation of the people suggest it. Consider their weakness and your strength. If ever they have listened to the Buriat's words of suggestion, if ever he suggested anything more than the welfare of his own community as hanging upon the favour of the Czar, then it could be only because you have bred fear instead of love. These people received you kindly in the past ; they have opened their doors to those who preach your faith ; and they have seen a wall of fire approach them. Try to assure them that the flame will not again tongue the peaks of their mountains. Try to take into your dealings with this poor people the warmth, the hospitality, the friendship, the quick charity which your splendid officers have shown to me, a helpless stranger, in many forsaken spots of the traveller's world. And as to that unselfish interest in the development of a people which, after all, does exist in your hearts, let it be satisfied by reflecting that the vast changes now making in China must reach Tibet, even if you let it alone. Slow indeed would be the process; with less of heartburn and despair; less loss of faith in something great and good ; less violence done to honesty in your own breasts ; less strain upon the peace of nations ; less worship of
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