s traditional China from modern Europe, but represents a
stage which most other civilizations have passed through, and which is
therefore not distinctively Chinese; the three characteristics which I
have enumerated, on the other hand, distinguish China from all other
countries of past times. Something must be said at this stage about each
of the three.

1. As everyone knows, the Chinese do not have letters, as we do, but
symbols for whole words. This has, of course, many inconveniences: it
means that, in learning to write, there are an immense number of
different signs to be learnt, not only 26 as with us; that there is no
such thing as alphabetical order, so that dictionaries, files,
catalogues, etc., are difficult to arrange and linotype is impossible;
that foreign words, such as proper names and scientific terms, cannot be
written down by sound, as in European languages, but have to be
represented by some elaborate device.[15] For these reasons, there is a
movement for phonetic writing among the more advanced Chinese reformers;
and I think the success of this movement is essential if China is to
take her place among the bustling hustling nations which consider that
they have a monopoly of all excellence. Even if there were no other
argument for the change, the difficulty of elementary education, where
reading and writing take so long to learn, would be alone sufficient to
decide any believer in democracy. For practical purposes, therefore, the
movement for phonetic writing deserves support.

There are, however, many considerations, less obvious to a European,
which can be adduced in favour of the ideographic system, to which
something of the solid stability of the Chinese civilization is probably
traceable. To us, it seems obvious that a written word must represent a
sound, whereas to the Chinese it represents an idea. We have adopted the
Chinese system ourselves as regards numerals; "1922," for example, can
be read in English, French, or any other language, with quite different
sounds, but with the same meaning. Similarly what is written in Chinese
characters can be read throughout China, in spite of the difference of
dialects which are mutually unintelligible when spoken. Even a Japanese,
without knowing a word of spoken Chinese, can read out Chinese script in
Japanese, just as he could read a row of numerals written by an
Englishman. And the Chinese can still read their classics, although the
spoken language must