.

The position of Japan at the present moment is not only extremely
interesting but extraordinary in a degree. She is the cynosure for the
eyes of the civilised world, and for some years she has been subjected
at the hands of experts and amateurs of all descriptions to the most
minute investigation. Every phase of her national life has been
rigidly scrutinised and exhaustively written about. The national
character and characteristics have undergone the most intricate
psychological examination, and if the world does not now know the real
Japan it is certainly not from lack of material, literary material,
whereon to form a judgment. Indeed the attention Japan has received
has been sufficient to turn the head of any people. I am not sure that
this large output of literature on matters Japanese has effected very
much in the direction of enabling a sound judgment to be formed
regarding the country and the people. Many writers who have
dissertated upon Japan during the past couple of decades seem to have
imagined that they had discovered it, and their impressions have been
penned from that standpoint.

There used some years ago to be an advertisement of a "Popular
Educator" in which a youth with a curly head of hair and a face of
delightful innocence was depicted. Underneath the portrait the inquiry
was printed, "What will he become?" And there was then given an
illustrated alternative as to the appearance of this innocent youth at
different ages in his career according to the path he trod in life.
One alternative eventuated in the final evolution of an ancient and,
from his appearance, very palpable villain, the other of a
benevolent-looking old gentleman who quite evidently only lived to do
good. It seems to me that a large number of persons in various parts
of the world are to-day, as they have been for some time past, asking
the question in reference to Japan, "What will she become?" It is
without doubt a highly interesting inquiry, but the answer to it, so
far as my knowledge goes, is not like the advertisement I have
referred to, one of two courses--the one leading to perdition, the
other to prosperity. On the contrary, the answers seem to be as
numerous and varied as the answerers, and most of the answers would
appear to have been arrived at simply and merely by the false premises
and very often the entirely erroneous "facts" of the inquirers.

A favourite and fallacious method of dealing with Japan is that of
reg