itten characters are those common to
about 450 millions of the world's people, and I think that the use of
the Chinese characters in Japan will be a factor of considerable
importance in the future history of the world, because I am convinced
that Japan is destined to exercise a preponderating influence in and
over China, and that the exercise of that influence will be greatly
facilitated by the written characters which both nations have in
common.

I may at once candidly confess that I have no theory to broach in
respect of the origin of the Japanese people or the language that they
speak. In such matters theorising appears to me to be a pure waste of
time. One has only to look round the world as it is to-day, or for the
matter of that within the confines of one's own country, to see how
rapidly the people living for long periods in a certain part of the
country develop distinct characteristics not only in physiognomy but
in dialect. It is only the existence of the printing press which has,
so to speak, stereotyped the languages of nations and prevented
variations becoming fixed, variations and dialects which in days prior
to the existence of printing presses were evolved into distinct
languages. Take the British Isles for example, any part of them,
Yorkshire, Scotland, Ireland, London, and note the difference between
the spoken language of certain classes and the language as printed in
newspapers and books. Given a nation isolated, or comparatively
isolated, for many hundreds of years, it is difficult to say to what
extent its language might be evolved or in what degree the few chance
visitors thereto may introduce words which are readily adapted to or
adopted in the language and influence it for all time. Take, for
example, a word which any visitor to China or Japan must have heard
over and over again, viz., "Joss," as applied to God. This is, as most
people know, simply a corruption of the Portuguese name for the deity.
I hope some philologist a few thousand years hence who may trace that
word to its original source will not adduce therefrom that either the
Chinese or the Japanese sprang from a Latin race.

The most ancient Japanese writings date from the eighth century. These
are Japanese written in Chinese characters, but the Chinese written
language as also its literature and the teachings of the great Chinese
philosopher, Confucius, are believed to have been introduced several
hundreds of years previously. This