It is curious to note that those influences and passions
which we group under the names of chivalry to a person and loyalty to an ides. play no part, or apparently no part, in China. When a European monarchy has fallen, such as ours in the seventeenth and that of France in the eighteenth century, there have been thousands of men ready to suffer and die for the Monarchy out of a sense of chivalry, although their reason told them that the King's case was hopeless or that he was actually in the wrong. We must leave it to political philosophers to discuss whether on the whole it is an advantage or a disadvantage for these ideas of chivalry and of loyalty to dominate men's minds, or whether it is best that nothing but pure reason should prevail. It is obvious, however, that though chivalry may produce a situation of paradox, it also may act as a useful drag, whereas pure reason may carry the coach downhill too fast.
