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CHAPTER VII.
JAPAN.
LTIIOUGH comprising thousands of islands and islets, Japan is a
very small state compared with its great neighbour,
the vast
Chinese Empire, of which it looks like a simple geographical
dependence. But notwithstanding its limited size, Japan is one of
the most interesting countries in the world, both as regards its
physical features, its inhabitants, history, and especially
the transitional state
through which it is now passing. Of all non-European nations the Japanese
alone have fully and spontaneously accepted the culture of the West. They alone
have honestly endeavoured to adopt all its manifold material and moral conquests.
They had not the misfortune, like so many other peoples, of first losing their
political independence, and then reluctantly accepting
the culture of their
conquerors. Nor has the supremacy of a foreign religion grouped them together,
like a flock of sheep, in the fold of their evangelisers. Thus enjoying full
political
and religious liberty, thev have adopted European ideas, not as subjects, but in the
character of free disciples. As they had formerly endeavoured to enter the
Chinese world of thought and culture, they are now essaying,
with a certain
youthful ardour, to assimilate themselves to the "West ; whereas the Chinese
themselves, proud of their ancient civilisation, conscious of their latent strength,
and distrustful of those " foreign barbarians " who came bombarding their cities
and burning their palaces, accepted the teachings of the stranger with much
hesitation, and under the pressure of irresistible events. Whatever be the success
of the experiment, Japan henceforth belongs, in all that regards scientific
knowledge and industrial progress, to the comity of those nations amongst whom
has been developed the so-culled " Aryan " or " Western " culture. These peoples,
who, at the opening of the present century, numbered collectively, perhaps, one
hundred and fifty millions of human beings, now comprise as many as five hundred
millions, distributed over Europe, the New World, parts of Africa, Australia, and
Asia itself.
The geographical position of Japan adds a special value to this new accession
to their numbers. Lving midway between San Francisco and London by the routo