Empire better than the Mikado."

"Does he go away and start newspapers to prove that?"

"He may; but it seems to be unwholesome work. A paper can be suspended
without reason given under the present laws; and I'm told that one
enterprising editor has just got three years' simple imprisonment for
caricaturing the Mikado."

"Then there is yet hope for Japan. I can't quite understand how a people
with a taste for fighting and quick artistic perceptions can care for
the things that delight our friends in Bengal."

"You make the mistake of looking on the Bengali as unique. So he is in
his own peculiar style; but I take it that the drunkenness of Western
wine affects all Oriental folk in much the same way. What misleads you
is that very likeness. Followest thou? Because a Jap struggles with
problems beyond his grip in much the same phraseology as a Calcutta
University student, and discusses Administration with a capital A, you
lump Jap and Chatterjee together."

"No, I don't. Chatterjee doesn't sink his money in railway companies, or
sit down and provide for the proper sanitation of his own city, or of
his own notion cultivate the graces of life, as the Jap does. He is like
the _Tokio Public Opinion_--'purely political.' He has no art whatever,
he has no weapons, and there is no power of manual labour in him. Yet he
is like the Jap in the pathos of his politics. Have you ever studied
Pathetic Politics? _Why_ is he like the Jap?"

"Both drunk, I suppose," said the Professor. "Get that girl to give back
your gig-lamps, and you will be able to see more clearly into the soul
of the Far East."

"The 'Far East' hasn't got a soul. She swapped it for a Constitution on
the Eleventh of February last. Can any Constitution make up for the
wearing of Europe clothes? I saw a Jap lady just now in full afternoon
calling-kit. She looked atrocious. Have you seen the later Japanese
art--the pictures on the fans and in the shop windows? They are faithful
reproductions of the changed life--telegraph poles down the streets,
conventionalised tram-lines, top-hats, and carpet-bags in the hands of
the men. The artists can make those things almost passable, but when it
comes to conventionalising a Europe dress, the effect is horrible."

"Japan wishes to take her place among civilised nations," said the
Professor.

"That's where the pathos comes in. It's enough to make you weep to watch
this misdirected effort--this wallowing in unloveliness f