, by University College, London. We can see him amidst
the mist and fog in the hurry and bustle of the great city, the ugliness
of its daily life and social arrangements: he would have quarrelled with
his friends, with the university professors, with his landlady, ending
his life, most likely, in a London lodging, instead of sinking to rest
surrounded by the devotion and care of those that loved him.

An intrepid soldier in the ranks of literature was Lafcadio Hearn. His
work was not merely literary material turned out of his brain, completed
by his industrious hand; to him it was more serious than life. He is,
indeed, one of the most extraordinary examples of the strange and
persistent power of genius, "ever advancing," as he himself expresses
it, "by seeking to attain ideals beyond his reach, by the Divine
Temptation of the Impossible!" Well did he realise that the more
appreciation for perfection a man cherishes, the more instinct for art,
the smaller will be his success with the general public. But never was
his determination to do his best actuated by any hope of pecuniary gain.
From the earliest years of his literary career, his delight in
composition was the pure delight of intellectual activity, rather than
delight in the result, a pleasure, not in the work but in the working.
According to him, nothing was less important than worldly prosperity, to
write for money was an impossibility, and Fame, a most damnable,
infernal, unmitigated misery and humbug.

To enjoy the moments of delight in the perception of beauty "in this
short day of frost and sun," is the only thing, says Walter Pater, that
matters, and "the only success in life."

Judged from this point of view, Hearn's was certainly a successful life.
To the pursuit of the beautiful his days and years were devoted.

"One minute's work to thee denied
Stands all Eternity's offence"--

he quotes from Kipling.

This it is that gives his career a certain dignity and unity, despite
the errors and blunders defacing it at various periods. Man of strange
contradictions as he was, there was always one subject on which he never
was at issue either with himself or destiny.

Like those pilgrims whom he describes, toiling beside him up the ascent
of Fuji-no-yama, towards the sacred peak to salute the dawn, so through
hours of suffering and toil, under sunshine and under the stars, turning
neither to the right hand nor the l