lectures. The question then arose
as to who would deliver the resolution. There was general hesitancy,
and anyone who has seen or known the lecturer, and has heard him
speak, can easily understand this feeling; for he is a large man with
a most impressive and imperious manner. The young man, however, who
had perhaps been most active in agitating the matter, and who had
presented the resolution to the meeting, volunteered to go. He is
slight and rather small, even for a Japanese. Going to the home of the
lecturer, he delivered calmly the resolution of the students. To the
demand as to who had drawn up and presented the resolution to the
meeting, the reply was: "I, sir." That ended the conversation, but not
the matter. From that day the idolized teacher was gradually lowered
from his pedestal. But the moral courage of the young man who could
say in his enraged presence, "I, sir," has not been forgotten. Neither
has that of the young man who had acted as interpreter for the first
lecture; not only did he decline to act in that capacity any longer,
but, taking the first public opportunity, at the chapel service the
following day, which proved to be Sunday, he went to the platform and
asked forgiveness of God and of men that he had uttered such language
as he had been compelled to use in his translating. Here, too, was
moral courage of no mean order.

XIV

FICKLENESS--STOLIDITY--STOICISM

A frequent criticism of the Japanese is that they are fickle; that
they run from one fad to another, from one idea to another, quickly
tiring of each in turn. They are said to lack persistence in their
amusements no less than in the most serious matters of life.

None will deny the element of truth in this charge. In fact, the
Japanese themselves recognize that of late their progress has been by
"waves," and not a few lament it. A careful study of school attendance
will show that it has been subject to alternate waves of popularity
and disfavor. Private schools glorying in their hundreds of pupils
have in a short time lost all but a few score. In 1873 there was a
passion for rabbits, certain varieties of which were then for the
first time introduced into Japan. For a few months these brought
fabulous prices, and became a subject of the wildest speculation. In
1874-75 cock-fighting was all the rage. Foreign waltzing and gigantic
funerals were the fashion one year, while wrestling was the fad at
another time, even the then prime