light was literally torn to pieces. One could multiply
examples, but the thing is plain. The national spirit of Japan centres
about the divinity of the Emperor. And precisely therein lies their
present problem. For one may say, I think, with confidence that this
attitude cannot endure, and is already disappearing. Western thought is
an irresistible solvent of all irrational and instinctive ideas. Men
cannot be engineers and pathologists and at the same time believe that a
man is a god. They cannot be historians and at the same time believe
that their first Emperor came down from heaven. Above all, they cannot
be politicians and abstain from analysing the real source and sanction
of political power. English political experience, it is true, suggests
immense possibilities in the way of clinging to fictions with the
feelings while insisting upon facts in practice. And the famous verse:

"But I was thinking of a plan
To dye my whiskers green,
And always wear so large a fan
That they should not be seen,"

might have been written to summarise the development of the British
Constitution. But the success of that method depends upon the condition
that the fictions shall be nothing _but_ fictions. The feelings of the
English can centre about the King only because they are well assured
that he does not and will not govern. But that condition does not exist
in Japan. The Japanese Constitution is conceived on the German, not the
English, model; and it bristles with clauses which are intended to
prevent the development which has taken place in England--the shifting
of power from the Sovereign to a Parliamentary majority. The Ministers
are the Emperor's Ministers; the policy is the Emperor's policy. That is
the whole tenour of the Constitution. No Constitution, it is true, can
"trammel up" facts and put power anywhere but where nature puts it. If
an Emperor is not a strong man he will not govern, and his Ministers
will. And it seems to be well understood among Japanese politicians that
the personal will of the Emperor does not, in fact, count for very much.
But it is supposed to; and that must become an important point so soon
as conflict develops between the Parliament and the Government. And such
conflict is bound to arise, and is already arising. Japanese parties, it
is true, stand for persons rather than principles; and the real
governing power hitherto has been a body quite unknown to the
Constitution--namely,