ut off from the rest of the world for hundreds of
years, had, out of their own inner consciousness, built up a code of
discipline and behaviour that, in its self-abnegation, its sense of
cohesion, and fidelity to law, throws our much-vaunted western
civilisation into the shade. Hearn brought to bear upon the
interpretation a rare power of using words, sympathetic insight, an
earnest and vivid imagination that enabled him to comprehend the
strongly accentuated characteristics of a race living close to the
origins of life; barbaric, yet highly refined; superstitious, yet
capable of adapting themselves to modern thought; playful as children,
yet astounding in their heroic gallantry and patriotism. His genius
enabled him to catch a glimpse of the indisputable truth that legend and
tradition are a science in themselves, that, however grotesque, however
fantastic primeval myths and allegories may be, they are indicative of
the gradual evolution of the heart and mind of generations as they arise
and pass away.

An idea, he said, was growing upon him about the utility of
superstition, as compared with the utility of religion. In consequence
of his having elected to live the everyday life, and enter into the
ordinary interests and occupations of this strange people, as no
occidental ever had before, he was enabled to see that many Japanese
superstitions had a sort of shorthand value in explaining eternal and
valuable things. When it would have been useless to preach to people
vaguely about morality or cleanliness or ordinary rules of health, a
superstition, a belief that certain infringement of moral law will bring
direct corporal punishment, that maligned spirits will visit a room that
is left unswept, that the gods will chastise over-excess in eating or
drinking, are related to the most inexorable and highest moral laws, and
it is easy to understand how invaluable is the study of their
superstitions in analysing and explaining so enigmatical a people as the
Japanese.

"Hearn thought a great deal of what we educated Japanese think nothing,"
said a highly-cultured Tokyo professor to me, with sarcastic intonation.
Hearn, on the other hand, maintained that not to the educated Japanese
must you go to understand the vitality of heart and intelligence which
through centuries of the Elder Life has evolved so remarkable a
nationality. To set forth the power that has moulded the character of
this far eastern people, material must be c