ion--it must after
all be a small section--of the population of the country has
aspirations to make things "hum," if I may use an expressive bit of
American slang. Young Japan, we are led to believe, is intensely
ambitious and extremely cocksure. It cannot and will not go slow; on
the contrary, it is in a fearful hurry, and is in reference to every
matter political, commercial, religious, a hustler. It has no doubts
upon any subject, and no difficulty in regard to making up its mind on
any matter. This is what we hear and read. How much of it all is true
I know not. I am very largely of opinion that this representation of
young Japan is altogether a caricature. Youth we know in every clime
is impulsive and impetuous. There is no need to go to Japan to
convince ourselves of that fact. But youth, if it have these defects,
also possesses enthusiasm, and I should be inclined to describe that
as one of the most pleasing characteristics of the youth of Japan.
After all, time will cure Young Japan of some of its defects. Young
Japan will grow old, and if it loses its enthusiasm it will gain
experience. I not only have no fear of these vivacious young men who
love their country and are proud of it. I regard them not as a danger,
but as a pleasing feature in the progress of Japan, and a potent
factor in its future prosperity.

The writers and critics to whom I have referred in this chapter seem
to be oblivious of the fact that progress is the law of nature. It has
nothing to do with either climate or race. I admit that it may be
affected by environment or other causes of a temporary nature. The
Occidental visiting the East sees things that are strange to him--a
people, the colour of whose skin and the contour of whose features are
different to his own; costume, style of architecture, and many other
matters entirely dissimilar to what he has viewed in his own country.
He accordingly jumps to the absolutely erroneous conclusion that these
people are uncivilised, and that their lack of civilisation is due to
some mental warp or some defect in either the structure or the size of
their brain. Of course such a conception is entirely erroneous, and
yet it is marvellous to what an extent it prevails. These people are
for all practical purposes the same as himself, except that they have
been affected by various matters and circumstances that I have called
ephemeral. What a nation, like an individual, needs is the formation
of a distinct