The practical political leadership of such a society as I conceive to be needed would probably demand different gifts from those required in an intellectual leader.  It is therefore likely that the two could not be combined in one man, but would need men as different as Lenin and Karl Marx.

The aim to be pursued is of importance, not only to China, but to the world.  Out of the renaissance spirit now existing in China, it is possible, if foreign nations can be prevented from working havoc, to develop a new civilization better than any that the world has yet known.  This is the aim which Young China should set before itself:  the preservation of the urbanity and courtesy, the candour and the pacific temper, which are characteristic of the Chinese nation, together with a knowledge of Western science and an application of it to the practical problems of China.  Of such practical problems there are two kinds:  one due to the internal condition of China, and the other to its international situation.  In the former class come education, democracy, the diminution of poverty, hygiene and sanitation, and the prevention of famines.  In the latter class come the establishment of a strong government, the development of industrialism, the revision of treaties and the recovery of the Treaty Ports (as to which Japan may serve as a model), and finally, the creation of an army sufficiently strong to defend the country against Japan.  Both classes of problems demand Western science.  But they do not demand the adoption of the Western philosophy of life.

If the Chinese were to adopt the Western philosophy of life, they would, as soon as they had made themselves safe against foreign aggression, embark upon aggression on their own account.  They would repeat the campaigns of the Han and Tang dynasties in Central Asia, and perhaps emulate Kublai by the invasion of Japan.  They would exploit their material resources with a view to producing a few bloated plutocrats at home and millions dying of hunger abroad.  Such are the results which the West achieves by the application of science.  If China were led astray by the lure of brutal power, she might repel her enemies outwardly, but would have yielded to them inwardly.  It is not unlikely that the great military nations of the modern world will bring about their own destruction by their inability to abstain from war, which will become, with every year that passes, more scientific and more devastating.  If China joins in this madness, China will perish like the rest.  But if Chinese reformers can have the moderation to stop when they have made China capable of self-defence, and to abstain from the further step of foreign conquest; if, when they have become safe at home, they can turn aside from the materialistic activities imposed by the Powers, and devote their freedom to science and art and the inauguration of a better economic system—­then China will have played the part in the world for which she is fitted, and will have given to mankind as a whole new hope in the moment of greatest need.  It is this hope that I wish to see inspiring Young China.  This hope is realizable; and because it is realizable, China deserves a foremost place in the esteem of every lover of mankind.