se the frost lay cold on the hearths of his poor; or
Taiso of Tang forego food because his people were feeling the pinch of
famine; ... it lies in that worship of feeling which casts around
poverty the halo of greatness, impresses his stern simplicity of
apparel on the Indian prince, and sets up in China a throne whose
imperial occupant--alone amongst the great secular rulers of the
world--never wears a sword."

It were unkind to criticise eloquence of this description too
seriously. The fact, if it be a fact, that the Emperor of China never
wears a sword is in one sense interesting but it proves nothing. It is
well to get down from eloquence of this kind to concrete facts, to
come back to the point whence we started, viz., What will Japan
become? What is her present condition? Any one who compares the Japan
of to-day with the Japan of, say, thirty or forty years ago will, I
think, impatiently sweep aside some of the absurd theories to which I
have referred, psychological and otherwise. The unprejudiced man,
letting his mind indulge in retrospect, and comparing that
retrospective view with the present actuality, will, I believe, have
no difficulty in determining that though Japan is and must remain an
Oriental nation, what she has acquired of recent years is neither
veneer or varnish, but has been assimilated into the very system of
the people. Very probably Japan will never become thoroughly
Occidentalised. There are many of us who hope she never may. I
believe, however, that in adopting many Occidental customs and habits
she will adapt and modify them to her own needs, and in due course
evolve a race neither distinctly Occidental nor Oriental while
retaining many of her past customs and her ancient characteristics.
She will, in a word, be as far as possible an eclectic nation, and it
is, so far as I know, the first time in the history of the world that
an attempt has been made to develop such.

There are, I know, many people in Europe as well as in Japan who feel
and express some apprehension in regard to what they term young Japan.
This term, like many other terms, has never been accurately defined,
but I take it to mean that portion of the country consisting of the
young or younger men who have been educated according to Western
ideas, have acquired Western modes of thought, and have developed--I
do not use the word in an opprobrious sense--a bumptiousness. It is
assumed, on what grounds I know not, that this sect