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0051 The heart of a continent : vol.1
The heart of a continent : vol.1 / Page 51 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000247
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in it. I should say, too, that their conversation is good ; it is
certainly bright, and it is very natural and well sustained. Of
course, in conversation with Europeans they do not excel ;
they are lamentably ignorant of geography, for instance, and
they generally annoy the stranger by asking if his country is
tributary to China. But in the conversation carried on amongst
themselves there seem to be many topics quite as good as
geography and the weather, and one hears long, well-thought-
out, and well-expressed arguments on philosophic and moral
subjects, freely interspersed with quotations from their classics.
A Chinaman is perhaps rather too celestial, rather too much
up in the clouds and above ordinary mortals, and certainly
shows too little interest in the common everyday affairs of
this world ; but he is an interesting man to meet at home, and,
mingled with the irritation which his superciliousness so often
inspires, I often had a feeling of real regard for a man who can
aspire to such a lofty standpoint as the Chinaman does, and
in his case I felt that it was not all simple self-conceit, for he
had in him the pride of belonging to an empire which has
stood intact for thousands of years, and which was approaching
civilization when we ourselves were steeped in barbarism.