ere swept away by the Russian
revolution, and Japan's diplomatic position was therefore worse beyond
compare than that of the French Republic in July, 1917, because the
latter was forthwith sustained by Great Britain and the United States,
with such abundance of military and economic resources as made up in the
long run for that of Russia. Japan, on the other hand, has as yet no
substitute for her prostrate ally. She is still alone among Powers some
of whom decline to recognize her equality, while others are ready to
thwart her policy and disable her for the coming race.

The Japanese are firm believers in the law of causality. Where they
desire to reap, there they first sow. They invariably strive to deal
with a situation while there is still time to modify it, and they take
pains to render the means adequate to the end. Unlike the peoples of
western Europe and the United States, the Japanese show a profound
respect for the principles of authority and inequality, and reserve the
higher functions in the community for men of the greatest ability and
attainments. It is a fact, however, that individual liberty has made
perceptible progress in the population, and is still growing, owing to
the increase of economic well-being and the spread of general and
technical education. But although socialism is likewise spreading fast,
I feel inclined to think that in Japan a high grade of instruction and
of social development on latter-day lines will be found compatible with
that extraordinary cohesiveness to which the race owes the position
which it occupies among the communities of the world. The soul of the
individual Japanese may be said to float in an atmosphere of
collectivity, which, while leaving his intellect intact, sways his
sentiments and modifies his character by rendering him impressible to
motives of an order which has the weal of the race for its object.

Japan has borrowed what seemed to her leaders to be the best of
everything in foreign countries. They analyzed the military, political,
and industrial successes of their friends and enemies, satisfactorily
explained and duly fructified them. They use the school as the seed-plot
of the state, and inculcate conceptions there which the entire community
endeavors later on to embody in acts and institutions. And what the
elementary school has begun, the intermediate, the technical, and the
high schools develop and perfect, aided by the press, which is
encouraged by the s