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EAST ASIA.
allow themselves
to deplore the
to be conquered without
disgraceful subjugation
a struggle, nor will civilisation
of 40,000,000 human beings
have
who
are rapidly placing themselves on a level with the most advanced states of
Christendom.
While recognising the superiority of European science and industry, the Jap-
anese are none the less, in certain respects even more, civilised than their foreign
instructors. In all that regards frugality, self-respect, the sentiment of honour,
mutual kindness and consideration, the mass of the people certainly stand on a
higher level than most Western peoples. The humblest Japanese peasant has an
eye open to the wild grandeur and softer charms of the landscape, and takes care
to build his hut by the sparkling stream, in the shade of a leafy thicket, or on an
eminence commanding a fair prospect of the surrounding scenery. His lowly
dwelling is even usually adorned with flowering plants tastefully disposed. The
country is not allowed to be disfigured by wayside inns erected on incongruous
sites, and during the fine weather groups rather of tourists than pilgrims are every-
where met visiting the districts famous for their romantic beauty.
The chief defect of the people, one which they most frequently complain of in
their own writings, is a lack of perseverance. Yet even this charge cannot well
be brought against the mass of the laborious and industrious classes, but applies
rather to the youth of the higher circles, who have perhaps been somewhat pre-
maturely " civilised " in the European sense. These half-educated representatives
of " Young Japan " have often shown a distaste for solid study, and pass easily
from one undertaking to another. Hence the " prophets of evil " have foretold a
sudden and terrible reaction at no distant date. But it is scarcely conceivable that
a whole nation can thus retrace its steps and deliberately revert to the old order of
things, especially when the progress already made is based on a solid scientific
foundation.
LANGUAGE AND LETTERS.
Like the arts, social institutions, and general culture of the people, the national
speech has been largely affected by foreign elements. The Yamato, or original
language of the country, which has no relation to the Chinese, is an agglutinating
polysyllabic tongue, affiliated by most writers to the Ural-Altaic family. Yet
nothing but the vaguest
resemblance has been detected between their structure,
syntax, or vocabulary. Japanese is distinguished by great harmony, comparable
in this respect to Italian, by full syllables and euphonic laws. The adjective always
precedes its noun, and the object its verb, and there are neither articles, cases,
moods, nor tenses, all the formal relations being indicated by particles or suffixes.
The Yamato is spoken in its purity only in court circles, and by Ihe caste of select
courtesans, who were probably formerly priestesses of the Sinto religion.
Elsewhere
the current speech is the Sinico-Japanese, in which, however, the Chinese
words have quite a different pronunciation from the Mandarin dialect. There is
no instance in Europe of a similar intermixture of two languages.
In English the