think that what is good for Englishmen is good for all
nations,--our ethics, our religion, our costumes, etc. The plain facts
of the case are that all Eastern races lose, instead of gaining, by
contact with us. They imitate our vices instead of our virtues, and
learn all our weaknesses without getting any of our strength. Already
statistics show an enormous increase of crime in Japan as the result of
'Christian civilisation'; and the open ports show a demoralisation
utterly unknown in the interior of the country, and unimaginable in the
old feudal days before 1840 or 1850...."

In the next letter he gives his sister a minute account of his Japanese
manner of life on the floor without chairs or tables. It has been
described so often by visitors to Japan, and by Hearn himself, that it
is unnecessary to repeat it here. He ends his letter:--

"I am now so used to the Japanese way of living, that when I have to
remain all day in Western clothes, I feel very unhappy; and I think I
should not find European life pleasant in summer time. Some day, I will
send you a photograph of my house.

"I wish you much happiness and good health and pleasant days of travel,
and thank you much for the paper.

"This letter is rather rambling, but perhaps you will find something
interesting in it.

"Ever affectionately,
"LAFCADIO."

In September comes another letter to Mrs. Atkinson:

"You actually talk about writing too often,--which is strange! There is
only this difficulty about writing,--that we both know so little of each
other that topics interesting to both can be only guessed at. That
should be only a temporary drawback.

"The more I see your face in photos, the more I feel drawn toward you.
Lillah and the other sister represent different moods and tenses
pictorially. You seem most near to me,--as I felt on first reading your
letter. You have strength, too, where I have not. You are certainly very
sensitive, but also self-repressed. I think you are not inclined to make
mistakes. I think you can be quickly offended, and quick to forgive--if
you understand the offence to be only a mistake. You would not forgive
at all should you discern behind the fault a something much worse than
mistake,--and in this you would be right. You are inclined to reserve,
and not to bursts of joy;--you have escaped my extremes of depression
and extremes