The second possibility is that after a second great internal disturbance, resulting in the whole country being thrown into a state of utter confusion and cut up into small independent states, the President should suppress them and unite the country into one empire.  We will, of course, not pray for the second possibility to come about as then there will be little left of the Chinese people.  And no one can be certain whether the person who shall succeed in suppressing the internal strife will be a man of our own race or not.  Thus the result will not differ very much from national extinction.  As to the first possibility, we know that an exceedingly capable man is now in a most powerful position; let him be given time and he will soon show himself to be a man of success.  Does not the last ray of hope for China depend on this?

X. The unripe pear.

This is why I say we should not deliberately create trouble for the Republic at this time to add to the worries of the Great President so that he might devote his puissant thoughts and energies to the institution of great reforms.  Then our final hope will be satisfied some day.  But what a year and what a day we are now living in?  The great crisis (Note:  The reference is to the Japanese demands) has just passed and we have not yet had time for a respite.  By the pressure of a powerful neighbour we have been compelled to sign a “certain” Treaty.  Floods, drought, epidemics and locusts visit our country and the land is full of suffering while robbers plunder the people.  In ancient times this would have been a day for the Imperial Court to remove their ornaments and live in humiliation.  What do the people of our day mean by advising and urging the President to ascend the throne?  To pluck the fruit before it is ripe, injures the roots of the tree; and to force the premature birth of a child kills the mother.  If the last “ray of hope” for China should be extinguished by the failure of a premature attempt to force matters, how could the advocates of such a premature attempt excuse themselves before the whole country?  Let the members of the Chou An Hui meditate on this point.

The odes say, “The people are tired.  Let them have a respite.”  In less than four years’ time from the 8th moon of the year Hsin Hai we have had many changes.  Like a bolt from the blue we had the Manchu Constitution, then “the Republic of Five Races,” then the Provisional President, then the formal Presidency, then the Provisional Constitution was promulgated, then it was suddenly amended, suddenly the National Assembly was convoked, suddenly it was dissolved, suddenly we had a Cabinet System, suddenly it was changed to a Presidential System, suddenly it was a short-term Presidency, suddenly it was a life-term Presidency, suddenly the Provisional Constitution was temporarily placed in a legal position as a Permanent Constitution, suddenly the drafting of the Permanent Constitution was pressed.  Generally