Volume II Part 17 (1/2)

Ever affectionately, LAFCADIO HEARN

TO OCHIAI

kumAMOTO, September, 1894

DEAR MR OCHIAI,--I was much interested in what your letter related about the doves leaving Kizuki, and about the _O mamori_ It is a curious fact that nearly the saard to Kato Kiyomasa At the Nichiren tereat Captain were always preserved Lately they disappeared, and some say they were sent to Korea,--to stimulate the zeal of the arht horse-hoofs were heard in the tereat shadowy horseman, in full armour, was seen to pass So it is whispered that Kiyorave, and buckled on his arlory and conquest

Thanks also for the very interesting note about the Eo

You know I visited the place where he lived at Oki, and the little village--Chiburi-mura--from which he made his escape in the fishermen's boat

What you said about the _aiven to thousands of soldiers

They are very narrow, and contrived so as to be slipped into the lining (_ura_) of a uniform

Thanks for your two kindest letters I shall write you again another day,--this is only my answer to one of your two letters; the other I still owe you for

Best wishes and regards to you always

LAFCADIO HEARN

TO ELLWOOD HENDRICK

KOBE, December, 1894

DEAR HENDRICK,--So it was _you_ that sent ! I never knew till the Spencer cale Book” And the joke is that I thanked another ift of ”Trilby,” and the beast never let on And I wrote a two and one-half column review of ”Trilby” to please _him_ Oh! you rascal! why didn't you tell me? Love to you for ”Trilby”

Glad you liked my first book on japan The _Tribune_ essay vexed me

The curious fact of the article was the statement about the influence of the _decadents_ and of Verlaine being ”apparent” Never read a line of Verlaine in h of the decadent school to convince , and that to study the stuff isone article a day for 100 yen a e is so lo that the 100 represents so less than 50 in A out Curious!--cold seriously affects o to a hot cliood vision Even a japanese hot bath teht

Of course, we shall never see each other again in this world And what is the use of being unkind--after all? Life to us literary folk--sreat--is so short, and we are never in competition, like business men who _must_ compete--_what_ is the use of meanness? I suppose there must be some use The effect is certainly to convince a man of ”fourty-four” that the less he has to do with his fellow men the better,--or, at least, that the less he has to do with the so-called ”cultured” the better

The other day you told ht by the influences of the outer In es are very unpleasant I can't feel towards er as I used to--I feel, in short, a little eneral facts seem to be that all realities of relations between men are of self-interest in the main; that the pleasures of those relations are illusions--dependent upon youth, power, position, etc, for degree of intensity No eneral rule, shows his soul to another man; he shows it only to a woive him away

As a matter of fact, she can't:--the Holy Ghost takes care of that! No woman unveils herself to another woman--only to a man; and what she unveils he cannot betray He can only talk of her body, if he is brute enough to wish to: the inner being, of which he has had soe which he cannot use But what a fightingis!

Have you read Huxley's views on Ethics and Evolution? They have been a great revelation to ood to one another on general principles without causing trouble in the order of the universe They also explain the immorality of Nature Cosmic principles afford explanations of--but not consolations for--individual experiences

L H

TO ELLWOOD HENDRICK

kumAMOTO, December, 1894