mplest pictures, therefore,
were pronounced the best. Paintings of birds and flowers were thus
admitted to be fine, because their realism spoke for itself. Of the
exquisite poetic feeling of their landscape paintings the foreign
critics were not at first conscious, because it was not expressed in
terms with which they were familiar.

But first impressions, here as elsewhere, are valuable. One is very apt
to turn to them again from the reasoning of his second thoughts. Flora
and fauna are a conspicuous feature of Far Asiatic art, because they
enter as details of the subject-matter of the artist's thoughts and
day-dreams. These birds and flowers are his sujets de genre. Where we
should select a phase of human life for effective isolation, they choose
instead a bit of nature. A spray of grass or a twig of cherry-blossoms
is motif enough for them. To their thought its beauty is amply
suggestive. For to the Far Oriental all nature is sympathetically
sentient. His admiration, instead of being centred on man, embraces the
universe. His art reflects it.

Leaving out of consideration, for the moment, minor though still
important distinctions in tone, treatment, and technique, the great
fundamental difference between Western and Far Eastern art lies in its
attitude toward humanity.

With us, from the time of the Greeks to the present day, man has been
the cynosure of artistic eyes; with them he has never been vouchsafed
more than a casual, not to say a cursory glance, even woman failing
to rivet his attention. One of our own writers has said that, without
passing the bounds of due respect, a man is permitted two looks at
any woman he may meet, one to recognize, one to admire. A Japanese
ordinarily never dreams of taking but one,--if indeed he goes so far as
that,--the first. It is the omitting to take that second look that has
left him what he is. Not that Fortune has been unpropitious; only blind.
Fate has offered him opportunity enough; too much, perhaps. For in Japan
the exposure of the female form is without a parallel in latitude. Never
nude, it is frequently naked. The result artistically is much the same,
though the cause be different. For it is a fatal mistake to suppose the
Japanese an immodest people. According to their own standards, they are
exceedingly modest. No respectable Japanese woman would, for instance,
ever for a moment turn out her toes in walking. It is considered
immodest to do so. Their code is, howeve