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Thou, Brother, art thy thought alone,Public opinion must be directed toward whatever is worthy of this day, and this is impossible except through the use of adequate arguments and the adducing of clear, comprehensive and conclusive proofs. For the helpless masses know nothing of the world, and while there is no doubt that they seek and long for their own happiness, yet ignorance like a heavy veil shuts them away from it.
The rest is only thew and bone. (68)
Observe to what a degree the lack of education will
weaken and degrade a people. Today [1875] from the
standpoint of population the greatest nation in the
world is China, which has something over four hundred
million inhabitants. On this account, its government
should be the most distinguished on earth, its
people the most acclaimed. And yet on the contrary,
because of its lack of education in cultural and material
civilization, it is the feeblest and the most helpless of
all weak nations. Not long ago, a small contingent of
English and French troops went to war with China
and defeated that country so decisively that they took
over its capital Peking. Had the Chinese government