everal
centuries old; a little farther, square miles of indescribable squalor;
then miles of military parade-ground trampled into a waste of dust, and
bounded by hideous barracks; then a great park full of weird beauty, the
shadows all black as ink; then square miles of streets of shops, which
burn down once a year; then more squalor; then rice-fields and
bamboo-groves; then more streets. Gigantic reservoirs with no water in
them, great sewer pipes without any sanitation.... To think of art, or
time, or eternity, he said, in the dead waste and muddle of this mess,
was difficult. But Setsu was happy--like a bird making its nest, she was
fixing up her new home, and had not yet had time to notice what ugly
weather it was.

In spite of grumbling and complaints about his surroundings at Tokyo,
there were redeeming features that rendered the position comparatively
tolerable. Some of his old pupils from Izumo were now students at the
Imperial University; they were delighted to welcome their old professor,
seeking help and sympathy as in days gone by. Knowing Hearn's irritable
and sensitive disposition, the affection and respect entertained for him
by his pupils at the various colleges in which he taught, and the manner
in which he was given his own way and his authority upheld, even when at
variance with the directors, speaks well both for him and his employers.

His work, too, was congenial. He threw himself into the preparation and
delivery of his lectures heart and soul. To take a number of orientals,
and endeavour to initiate them in the modes of thought and feeling of a
people inhabiting a mental and moral atmosphere as far apart as if
England and Japan were on different planets, might well seem an
impossible task.

In summing up the valuable work which Hearn accomplished in his
interpretation of the West to the East, these lectures, delivered while
professor of English literature at Kumamoto and Tokyo, must not be
forgotten. At the end of her two delightful volumes of Hearn's "Life and
Letters," Mrs. Wetmore gives us one of them, delivered at Tokyo
University, taken down at the time by T. Ochiai, one of his students.
Another is given by Yone Noguchi in his book on "Hearn in Japan." They
are fair examples of the manner in which Hearn spoke, not to their
intellects, but to their emotions. His theory was that beneath the
surface the hearts of all nationalities are alike. An emotional appeal,
therefore, was more likely to