e daring
originality and noble pride of genius, to which, by some mysterious
law of nature, the love of country and a national spirit seem to
be absolutely necessary. We imported our opinions ready-made--"by
balefuls," if it so pleases the Rev. Sidney Smith. We were taught
to read by English school-masters--and to reason by English
authors--English clergymen filled our pulpits, English lawyers our
courts--and above all things, we deferred to and dreaded the dictatorial
authority and withering contempt of English criticism. It is difficult
to imagine a state of things more fatal to intellectual dignity
and enterprise, and the consequences were such as might have been
anticipated. What is still more lamentable, although the cause has in a
good measure ceased, the effect continues, nor do we see any remedy for
the evil until our youth shall be taught to go up to the same original
and ever-living fountains of all literature, at which the Miltons, and
the Barrows, and the Drydens drank in so much of their enthusiasm and
inspiration, and to cast off entirely that slavish dependence upon the
opinions of others which they must feel, who take their knowledge of
what it is either their duty, their interest, or their ambition to
learn, at second hand.

* * * * *

=_Francis L. Hawks, 1798-1866._= (Manual, p. 480.)

From "Narrative of the United States Expedition to Japan."

=_195._= JAPAN INTERESTING IN MANY ASPECTS.

Viewed in any of its aspects, the empire of Japan has long presented to
the thoughtful mind an object of uncommon interest. And this interest
has been greatly increased by the mystery with which, for the last two
centuries, an exclusive policy has sought to surround the institutions
of this remarkable country....

The political inquirer, for instance, has wished to study in detail
the form of government, the administration of laws, and the domestic
institutions, under which a nation systematically prohibiting
intercourse with the rest of the world has attained to a state of
civilization, refinement, and intelligence, the mere glimpses of which
so strongly invite further investigation.

The student of physical geography, aware how much national
characteristics are formed or modified by peculiarities of physical
structure in every country, would fain know more of the lands and the
seas, the mountains and the rivers, the forests and the fields, which
fall within the limits of thi