as I think Brown would have liked
to hear it praised.

Thus this singularly eccentric and independent mind, wedded to a
character of so much strength, singleness, and purity, pursued its own
path of self-improvement for more than half a century, part
gymnosophist, part backwoodsman; and thus did it come twice, though in a
subaltern attitude, into the field of political history.

NOTE.--For many facts in the above essay, among which I may mention
the incident of the squirrel, I am indebted to "Thoreau: His Life and
Aims," by H. A. Page, _i.e._, as is well known, Dr Japp.

V

YOSHIDA-TORAJIRO

The name at the head of this page is probably unknown to the English
reader, and yet I think it should become a household word like that of
Garibaldi or John Brown. Some day soon, we may expect to hear more fully
the details of Yoshida's history, and the degree of his influence in the
transformation of Japan; even now there must be Englishmen acquainted
with the subject, and perhaps the appearance of this sketch may elicit
something more complete and exact. I wish to say that I am not, rightly
speaking, the author of the present paper: I tell the story on the
authority of an intelligent Japanese gentleman, Mr. Taiso Masaki, who
told it me with an emotion that does honour to his heart; and though I
have taken some pains, and sent my notes to him to be corrected, this
can be no more than an imperfect outline.

Yoshida-Torajiro was son to the hereditary military instructor of the
house of Choshu. The name you are to pronounce with an equality of
accent on the different syllables, almost as in French, the vowels as in
Italian, but the consonants in the English manner--except the _j_, which
has the French sound, or, as it has been cleverly proposed to write it,
the sound of _zh_. Yoshida was very learned in Chinese letters, or, as
we might say, in the classics, and in his father's subject;
fortification was among his favourite studies, and he was a poet from
his boyhood. He was born to a lively and intelligent patriotism; the
condition of Japan was his great concern; and while he projected a
better future, he lost no opportunity of improving his knowledge of her
present state. With this end he was continually travelling in his youth,
going on foot and sometimes with three days' provisions on his back, in
the brave, self-helpful manner of all heroes. He kept a full diary while
he was thus upon his journeys, but