ation and despair, joy and grief will
pass away as a storm passes across the heavens, bringing at last the
only solution futurity offers for the tumult and suffering of human
life--infinite calm, infinite rest.

"Deep, still, and luminous as the ether" ... was the impression made on
Hearn by this embodiment of the Buddhist faith, with its peace profound
and supreme self-effacement. Is it to be wondered at that henceforth he
attempted to reconcile the great oriental religion which it represented,
with every scientific principle and philosophical doctrine to which he
had hitherto subscribed?

It was bitterly cold on the afternoon of Friday the 26th; even the
shelter of the house at Nishi Okubo with its _shoji_ was comforting
after our long jinrikisha ride in a biting wintry wind. We had come
prepared to find a certain amount of sadness and solemnity reigning
among our hosts, it being the month-day commemorative of the August
One's death. But we were greeted with the same laughter, bows,
genuflections by the maid and little Setsu-ko as on our previous visit,
while on the upper step of the _genkan_ (entrance-room) with extended
hands and smiling welcome, stood the slim figure of Tanabe. At first,
when Mrs. Hearn, talking cheerily and gaily, led us to the alcove
occupied by the family shrine, we thought for a moment that she was
moved by a feeling of amusement at the eccentric little genius to whom
she had been married. Then we recalled various incidents of our travels
in the country, and Hearn's essay on the Japanese smile: "To present
always the most agreeable face possible, is a rule of life ... even
though the heart is breaking, it is a social duty to smile bravely."
Taught by centuries of awful discipline, the habit that urges people to
hide their own grief, so as to spare the feelings of others, struck us,
when we mastered its signification, as having a far more moving and
pathetic effect than the broken tones and ready tears of occidental
widows when referring to the departed.

The doors of the _Butsudan_ were set wide open, and on the _kamidan_, or
shelf in front of the commemorative tablet, stood a lighted lamp and
burning incense rods. Tiny lacquered bowls containing a miniature feast
of his favourite food, and vases of artificial sprays of iris were
placed side by side. In front of Hearn's photograph stood a pen in a
bronze stand. This pen, we understood from Tanabe, was one of three that
had been given to him