changes both to China and to the world cannot be comprehended
now.  There is something fascinating and at the same
time something appalling in the spectacle of a nation numbering
nearly one-third of the human race slowly and majestically
rousing itself from the torpor of ages under the influence of
new and powerful revolutionary forces.  No other movement
of our age is so colossal, no other is more pregnant with
meaning.  In the words of D.  C.  Bougler, ``The grip of the outer
world has tightened round China.  It will either strangle her
or galvanize her into fresh life.'' 

The immediate occasion of this volume was the invitation of
the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary to deliver a
series of lectures on China on the Student Lectureship Foundation
and to publish them in book form.  This will account in
part for the style of some passages.  I have, however, added
considerable material which was not included in the lectures,
while some articles that were contributed to the Century Magazine,
the American Monthly Review of Reviews and other
magazines have been inserted in their proper place in the