minister, Count Kuroda, taking the
lead. But the point of our special interest is as to whether
fickleness is an essential element of Japanese character, and so
dominant that wherever the people may be and whatever their
surroundings, they will always be fickle; or whether this trait is due
to the conditions of their recent history. Let us see.

Prof. Basil H. Chamberlain says, "Japan stood still so long that she
has to move quickly and often now to make up for lost time." This
states the case pretty well. Had we known Japan only through her
Tokugawa period, the idea of fickleness would not have occurred to us;
on the contrary, the dominant impression would have been that of the
permanence and fixity of her life and customs. This quality or
appearance of fickleness is, then, a modern trait, due to the
extraordinary circumstances in which Japan finds herself. The
occurrence of wave after wave of fresh fashions and fads is neither
strange nor indicative of an essentially fickle disposition. Glancing
below the surface for a moment, we shall see that there is an
earnestness of purpose which is the reverse of fickle.

What nation, for example, ever voluntarily set itself to learn the
ways and thoughts and languages of foreign nations as persistently as
Japan? That there has been fluctuation of intensity is not so
surprising as that, through a period of thirty years, she has kept
steadily at it. Tens of thousands of her young men are now, able to
read the English language with some facility; thousands are also able
to read German and French. Foreign languages are compulsory in all the
advanced schools. A regulation going into force in September, 1900,
requires the study of two foreign languages. This has been done at a
cost of many hundred thousands of dollars. There has been a fairly
permanent desire and effort to learn all that the West has to teach.
The element of fickleness is to be found chiefly in connection with
the methods rather than in connection with the ends to be secured.
From the moment when Japan discovered that the West had sources of
power unknown to herself, and indispensable if she expected to hold
her own with the nations of the world, the aim and end of all her
efforts has been to master the secrets of that power. She has seen
that education is one important means. That she should stumble in the
adoption of educational methods is not strange. The necessary
experience is being secured. But for a lesson