the process of construction can be commenced. No man can pass from one dogmatic system to another without going through an intervening phase of scepticism, and in raising the spirit of scepticism, the missionary will find that he has summoned to his aid a force which will speedily pass out of his control. Is it easy for a people, a people, too, more intellectually subtle than our own, to cast off the dogmas, that have grown dear and sacred to them from association since their earliest days with all they love and revere, that have been handed down to them through countless generations, and are bound up with all that is best and most admirable in their characters, for those of an entirely new religion in which, as it is popularly expounded, they discover much that jars both on their reason and moral sense? Hence it follows that the work of the missionaries among the Siamese, so far as conversion to Christianity goes, has been practically fruitless. On the other hand what success they have met with in this respect in Siam has been almost entirely among the Chinese, who, apart from their ancestor worship, are without any definite religion, and are therefore much more easy subjects for conversion, besides probably having a greater natural capacity for positive Christianity. The missionaries, both the French Catholics and American Protestants (for England is entirely unrepresented in this field of labour) have done admirable work in Siam in advancing the causes of civilisation and education, in ministering to the sick and needy, and in setting a high example of charity and philanthropy. Some, naturally, are more self-seeking than others, some are less suited in respect of education, tact, and breadth of sympathy for the task they have undertaken; but there are not a few who have exchanged the comforts and pleasures of home for life-long labour under a tropical sun, from the noblest motives, and who have achieved results that deserve the highest admiration and praise. Much of the advance of Siam has been directly or indirectly due to the missionaries. The late king and his brother were very largely influenced by them, and to them they owed much of their moral and intellectual enlightenment. For many years, too, they have done the most important work in advancing the education of the people themselves. Both Catholic and Protestant schools flourished in Bangkok before the Government set its hand to the work of education; and even now, the missionaries have a closeness of touch with their pupils, and an influence over them, far more important than the imparting of mere intellectual knowledge, which state-paid teachers can hardly hope to rival. It is in the general work of civilisation in its broadest sense that the missionaries will find their truest field, and it is hard to think that some of their chief obstacles and stumbling blocks come from their own people. What are the Christian virtues on which the preacher most often dwells? Chastity, sobriety, humility--these are surely to be reckoned among them. When the Siamese sees these virtues commonly set at nought by those whose religion specially inculcates them, is not the task of the missionary made ten times more difficult? Maxima debetur puero reverentia. The Siamese are a nation of children, quick to perceive, imitative, impressionable. A heavy responsibility, therefore, lies on those who come to Siam for the purpose of filling their purses and furthering their own ends, if they do not at least set before these people the example of a clean and honourable life. CHAPTER IX EDUCATION In the past the education of the Siamese as of the Burmese has been conducted entirely in the monasteries, and probably there have been few countries where, till within comparatively recent years, there has been such a wide-spread system of popular education as in these lands of Buddhism. Almost every boy enters the wat school, usually at about the age of eight or ten, and the consequence is that a large proportion of Siamese males have learned at any rate the rudiments of reading and writing, though they may not advance much further. Siam could not of course compare with the most progressive Western lands at the present time, but popular education is certainly as much diffused there as it was in many a European country at the beginning, perhaps even the middle, of last century. The power of reading and writing is not, indeed, the same instrument in the hands of the Siamese that it is in those of the European. He has no literature of his own by which he may advance step by step into the higher realms of education. A few worthless books, chiefly translations of Chinese plays and ghost and fairy stories are all that he has. Still a love of reading is fairly general, and it is not uncommon for any one taking an evening walk in Bangkok to see a family circle, gathered around one of its members reading aloud to them. But, beyond this point, education has never progressed among the masses, except in the case of priests who have devoted their lives to the study of the Buddhist Scriptures. The first to introduce secular education of a more advanced nature were the missionaries. Much of the rapid improvement in civilisation and manners among the ruling class of the past generation was due to their influence. Their educational work is now restricted to a humbler, but hardly less important sphere, and till the Education Department took the matter in hand a few years ago they practically monopolised the field outside the education given in the wats. It is difficult to estimate the work of the missionaries by actual results. The influence of the best of them reaches so much further than the mere domain of things intellectual. No doubt the better equipped government schools with their expert masters and mistresses can now leave them behind in the matter of examinations, but still there is no reason for depreciating the have done and are doing. important work they Personally I should |