Volume II Part 15 (2/2)

The businessof the earth; merchants and bankers are the rulers, and will for all time be, while industrialisood things of life; they also prevent others fro either They may not be poets, philosophers, didactic teachers, artists; but their hest,--because its achievehest difficulties, the deepest probleanization is obtained at a heavy cost in the majority of cases The emotions dry up in the evolution of it, and the moral sense weakens But because this must happen in thedeveloped, it is far froh can scarcely do more evil than a God He cannot injure his world voluntarily without suffering from his own action He must study his world as a naturalist his ant-hill And even as a God he ood is not of hi forever viewlessly woven in Shadow by the Fates of the Infinite,--whose distaff twists the thread of his own life, and whose will guides his own courses

The great desire would be for the coe, of philosophy with mathematics, of Plato with a Napoleon, or Spinoza with a Gould This will coht reply, ”In the present order of things the co-power of the man The Gould could not act the Gould if combined with the Spinoza,--nor could the Napoleon _se foule de la vie d'un million d'hommes_ if crossed with a Plato”

I would answer, ”Not in the elder generation, but why not to-day? If the moral laws that in a Spinoza would have checked a Gould, or in a Plato checked a Napoleon, were essentially limited in other years, are they so to-day? If the two philosophers had had larger horizons of thinking, would they have recognized a tether,--or would they not rather have viewed themselves as mere force-atonitions of laws transcending all huestions?--and must not business, froe of these laws?”

To-day, it is true, the highest possible type of business man would have to follow the small policy of the majority But certainly he can be like one of those coines,--whereof the best half is kept idle in reserve,--always oiled and speckless and ready for rare erets so away, that need not be any alarher possibilities Don't you reh thou love her as thyself-- As a self of purer clay,-- Though her parting dirace froo The Gods arrive!_”

The dear little psyche is going? Well, let her go! Regret her a little--that is sweet and good Feel lonesoe enough to wrap round the whole world, like the aether

Faithfully ever, LAFCADIO HEARN

TO PAGE M BAKER

kuh I never hear fros otten, and a you will not show the letter to anybody

I told you soo I was married; but I did not tell you I had a son,--who is, of course, dearer than my own life to me Curiously, he is neither like his lish ancestor,--for he is grey-eyed, fair-haired (curly chestnut), and wonderfully strong: he is going, if he lives, to be a remarkably powerful man; and, I hope, a more sensible man than his foolish dad

Well, noo perils menaceher individuality against all foreign influence, which has resulted in the discharge of n employees; secondly, the ith China The japanese--essentially a fighting race, as Bantams are--will probably win the battles every time; but if China be in dead, bitter earnest, _she_ in the war (Probably her chances will be snatched fron intervention) But whatever be the end of this enor to empty her treasury The chances for Govern: my contract runs only till March, and the chances are 0

Of course, I can peg along so a little teaching of English, French, or Spanish I can't help thinking I would do better to go abroad--especially at a time when every American 100 cents is worth nearly 200 japanese cents

Here goes Could you getfor Ah to save money at I am past all nonsense now, and for myself only would need very little But it would not be forable to sendand an occasional book or two If you could getanywhere south of Mason and Dixon's line, I should try to be practically grateful in so Boston or New York or Philadelphia--or being obliged to exist by machinery

I would rather infinitely be in Melorious Florida

Or can you geteducational in Spanish-America? I could scarcely take ht try later on I ah to educate my boy well, I don't knohat I am worth,--but I feel that I shall have precious little time to do it in Add 20 to 44,--and how much is left of aabout at all: ”Well, ere you such a d----d fool as to go and have a son?” Ask the Gods!

Really _I_ don't know

Ever faithfully--or, as the japanese would say, _un_faithfully,--yours,

LAFCADIO HEARN

TO ELLWOOD HENDRICK

kumAMOTO, June, 1894

DEAR HENDRICK,--We were chatting last time about the morality of business Now let ent japanese student

”Sir, as your opinion when you first came to our country about the old-fashi+oned japanese? Please be frank with me”

”You mean the old men, who still preserve the old customs and courtesy,--men like Mr Akizuki, the Chinese teacher?”