Volume II Part 12 (1/2)

TO OCHIAI

kuiven me much pleasure to hear of your success at the exa year, and good health to aid you

I want also to talk to you about another matter very much to your interest Please pay attention to my words, and think about them I only wish your happiness;--therefore reht

I want to talk to you about Christianity, as a religion,--not as a _shu_, or sect I hope you will understand the distinction I ion is a moral belief which causes ood to each other A sect is ious teaching Thus in Buddhism there are many sects or _shu_; and in Christianity, there are also many sects or _shu_ But it is not what makes the sects that has made Buddhism Neither is it what has made the Christian sects that has ion--moral truth; sects areof _kyo_, or theof other sacred texts

So much for this I want now to tell you, as your friend, that it is _not_ Christianity to refuse to bow before the portrait of the Ereat dead If anybody tells you that is Christianity,--that person is not a Christian, but a bigot, and an enelish national anthem, we take off our hats Whenever we enter into the presence of one of Her Majesty's representatives, we take off our hats We stand up to drink Her Majesty's health We are taught that the Queen rules by divine command It is the same in Germany, in Austria, in Italy, in Spain,--in all except republican countries So ht, even for a Christian, to bow before the Eood to do it To refuse to do it is ignorant and vulgar It is not Christian at all

Now about the question of tombs and temples What is the Christian custom? The Christian custoion which other people believe in If I go into a Christian church,--although I ao into a Mohammedan mosque, I must take off my shoes Such tokens of respect are purely social,--they are just and right In Mexico, for exaious procession passes, everybody who is polite takes off his hat That ion, I respect your religion,--your prayers to heaven, and your wish to be good”

Again, when a funeral goes by, we take off our hats That h none of _my_ friends have died, I syht

Whatever you believe, my dear Ochiai, you need never refuse to show respect to the toion of another people or another country Christianity teaches no such discourtesy Only bigots teach it,--and even they teach it for reasons you are not able to understand I do not want to question your religious belief at all;--that is not my duty I want only to talk to you about social action in reference to _real_ religion No honest religion ought to cause you any unhappiness, or to cause you to be blaht to be of the heart It is not a question of hats and shoes Do not refuse to show respect to honest customs and honest reverence for ancestors, by a bow, or a removal of the hat It will injure your prospects in life toto show respect to the beliefs of your nation and country Such respect has nothing to do with your faith;--it is a question of social politeness and gentleed for your belief,--not at all You will sientleions That is the real Western idea Do not deceive yourself

This from your true friend and teacher,

LAFCADIO HEARN

TO ELLWOOD HENDRICK

kuust, 1893

DEAR HENDRICK,--And now for a letter Your last two letters were full of curious things that call for no answer, but, in connection with foregoing ones, certainly invite coliicallike this?--

General: (1) Theoretically, you ood,--unless you wish to starve or live in the sliently, withoutany blunders

Special: (1) If you are not e ood,--and resign yourself to re poor and despised all your blessed life Don't kick: if you do, you'll die! (2) In proportion as you are ent than your fellow man, the more to your interest to depart from abstract moral rules;--the more, indeed, you _must_ It is quite true that vice and crime lead to ruin Still, youinto trouble If you don't, you will die (3) Reconcile intelligently these see contradictions

The contradictions can only be fully recognized and reconciled through a profound knowledge of social conditions, not in the abstract only, but in the nition But the practical recognition requires special hereditary gifts,--intuitions,--instincts,--powers Mere education in business alone won't do That only makes servants Masters must be _natural_ masters of men Life is an intellectual battle, but not a battle to be fought out by mere chess-combinations It is also a battle of characters The combinations required for success are of theforce, perception, versatility, resource,--and enough coy to avoid fatal oes to the top But he has there to fight for his standing-rooainst himself

In the Buddhist systeainst teins to be remembered, the Future to be foreseen But always in proportion to the progress and the enlightenment, the temptations increase For exah sexual power (!) The ifts The Soul reaches heaven Then is the greatest of all tees,--supres offered to feast upon And here can be no _sin_: it is only a question of further progress Indulgence ression The wise only pass to Nirvana--Now I fancy the battle of life has the sah; and is beco with a velocity beyond all precedent (I see there is a falling-off in the birth-rate of the US--which ) And ultimately what must come out of all this? Pain is certainly the only reliable creator,--the only one whose work endures Extraordinary intelligence and, mental dynamical poill be results, of course,--up to a certain time I do not see much likelihood, however, of _o said,of history: we have ress in that Then co iun to think is, a _ressive kinds: those which the whole world agrees to call immoral For the physical value and excellence of a life in its relation to other lives is pries correspondingly effected within itself This is called adaptation to environment If this be the physical side of the question, what is the moral side? That the perfect character must be able to oppose or to es within itself This necessarily involves a prodigious experience of evil,--a deep, personal, intihtful dualism only in prospect No love or mercy outside of the circle of each active life As Spencer holds, absolute le for existence has ceased This is not new The appalling prospect is this,--How infinitely worse the world ins to iht to be conducted with a knowledge of these things

But will the existing state of things continue indefinitely? Surely, it can't! It is tootoo infernal! There s-up, recrystallizations to lighten the burthen And ill these be?

I cannot send you, because there is no copy here, but I recommend you a book,--Pearson's ”National Character,” a study He takes the ground that the future is not to the white races,--not to the Anglo-Saxon I think this almost certain I think of the awful cost of life to the white races,--the more awful cost of character I think of the vast races of creatures--beheatheriums and ichthyosaurians--which have disappeared from the earth simply because of the cost of their physical structure But what is the physical cost of even the structure of an ichthyosaurus to the cost of the structure of a master of applied , say, a salary of 100 a month,--exactly as much as it costs twenty educated Orientals to live--each with a family of at least three persons,--or in other words 1 European = 120 Orientals There is an instinctive knowledge, perhaps, of the future, in the instinctive hatred of the Chinese in America There is an instinctive sense of the sa which prompts the Oriental to exclude Europeans The latter _over_live the former; the former underlive the latter But in all this there are coical questions extraordinary

Ever affectionately, LAFCADIO HEARN

TO ELLWOOD HENDRICK

kumAMOTO, 1893