Before leaving Seoul I ventured to send to His Imperial Majesty of Korea, through one of his most intimate, devoted, and consistent friends of long standing, a message that should embody some of my impressions regarding his own best interests and the essential conditions for the future welfare of his country. I had already frequently addressed his people with great plainness, relying upon an implied confidence in the sincerity of their monarch’s words, spoken at the time of my audience at the Court. It will be remembered (see p. 46) that the Emperor had then said: “He was glad to learn I had come to instruct his people in right ways”; “he hoped they would open their minds to enlightenment and to modern ideas”; he wished “my addresses would contribute to their progress.” The speaker had, therefore, not only royal permission but that request, which, according to the etiquette of this and other Eastern courts, is the equivalent of a command, when he warned his Korean audiences that the real prosperity of their country could not be obtained by intrigue and assassination, but only by cultivating the industries and arts, by improving education, and by regulating their conduct according to the unchanging principles of a pure morality and a truly spiritual religion. Moreover, it should be remembered that, while Oriental monarchs are accustomed to think of themselves as entitled to rule without regard to constitutional restrictions and in defiance of control by any legal code, the Confucian ethics requires them to submit patiently to rebuke and exhortation, on moral grounds. It also exalts the position of the teacher of practical philosophy (or ethics) to the highest rank in the service of the State. Nor had I forgotten the earnest words of the aged Japanese physician at a banquet held on the evening of the preceding 11th of February, in the city of Osaka, by which the one hundred and fifty leading citizens assembled there were reminded that, when the ancient Oriental teacher and the modern teacher from the West agree in the doctrine—“It is righteousness which exalteth a nation”—their agreement is significant of the important conclusion that the doctrine is true. It did not seem improper, therefore, to call his Majesty’s attention to the rocks just ahead, directly for which, under the piloting of evil domestic and foreign counsellors, he was steering the ship of State.