My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

34 MY LIFEIn an article on the civilizations of China andJapan in The Independent Revieiv (April, 1904), it ispointed out that the universal practice of " saving theface " of any kind of opponent rests upon the fundamentalidea of the right of every individual to betreated with personal respect. With them this principleis taught from childhood, and pervades everyclass of society, while with us it is only recognized bythe higher classes, and by them is rarely extendedto inferiors or to children. The feeling that demandsthis recognition is certainly strong in many children,and those who have suffered under the failure of theirelders to respect it, can well appreciate the agony ofshame endured by the more civilized Eastern peoples,whose feelings are so often outraged by the totalabsence of all respect shown them by their Europeanmasters or conquerors. In thus recognizing thesanctity of this deepest of human feelings thesepeople manifest a truer phase of civilization than wehave attained to. Even savages often surpass usin this respect. They will often refuse to enter anempty house during the absence of the owner, eventhough something belonging to themselves may havebeen left in it ; and when asked to call one of theirsleeping companions to start on a journey, they willbe careful not to touch him, and will positively refuseto shake him rudely, as an Englishman would haveno scruple in doing.As the period from the age of six to fourteenwhich I spent at Hertford was that of my wholehome-life till I had a home of my own twenty-eightyears later, and because it was in many ways moreeducational than the time I spent at school, I think itwell to give a short account of it.During the year or two spent at the first house we