windows and fire; hats, white shirts, and woolen
underwear; boots and shoes; trunks, bags, and boxes; bedsteads,
mattresses, sheets, and blankets; all of which a Japanese can do
without, and is really better off without."[G] Surely one finds much
of truth in this, and there is no denying the charm of the simpler
civilization, but the closing phrase of the quotation is the
assumption without discussion of the disputed point. Are the Japanese
really better off without these implements of Western civilization?
Evidently they themselves do not think so. For, in glancing through
the list as given by the writer quoted, one realizes the extent of
Japanese adoption of these Western devices. Hardly an article but is
used in Japan, and certainly with the supposition of the purchaser
that it adds either to his health or his comfort. In witness are the
hundreds of thousands of straw hats, the glass windows everywhere,
and the meat-shops in each town and city of the Empire. The charm of a
foreign fashion is not sufficient explanation for the rapidly
spreading use of foreign inventions.

That there are no useless or even evil features in our Western
civilization is not for a moment contended. The stiff starched shirt
may certainly be asked to give an account of itself and justify its
continued existence, if it can. But I think the proposition is capable
of defense that the vast majority of the implements of our Occidental
civilization have their definite place and value, either in
contributing directly to the comfort and happiness of their possessor,
or in increasing his health and strength and general mental and
physical power. What is it that makes the Occidental longer-lived than
the Japanese? Why is he healthier? Why is he more intelligent? Why is
he a more developed personality? Why are his children more energetic?
Or, reversing the questions, why has the population of Japan been
increasing with leaps and bounds since the introduction of Western
civilization and medical science? Why is the rising generation so free
from pockmarks? Why is the number of the blind steadily diminishing?
Why are mechanisms multiplying so rapidly--the jinrikisha, the
railroads, the roads, the waterworks and sewers, the chairs, the
tables, the hats and umbrellas, lamps, clocks, glass windows and
shoes? A hundred similar questions might be asked, to which no
definite answers are needful.

Further discussion of details seems unnecessary. Yet the full