Volume II Part 17 (2/2)
DEAR HENDRICK,--Of course I shall teach the ”Jungle Book” to the little fellohen he gets big enough How pretty of you to send it I sent some little prints--don't know if you like them; in an album they would perhaps interest your friends who have not been in japan I shall look out for seeds for you regularly hereafter
About Eot a pretty edition of hiestive, but wondrously so at tireat The talk about his truise of the speaker Ee or s to the reader's knowledge of the thought of the age
My reading out here has been pretty heavy I have had to digest a good deal of Buddhist and Chinese stuff, of course My philosophical favourites are still Spencer and Huxley, Lewes and Fiske and Clifford
I 's acquaintance out here (I mean his books), and told you what I think of hi I like Stevenson But I have really read very little of anything new Browning is a pet study still Somehow I have tired of Tennyson--don't exactly knohy
The labour of a ine, no et what our own mothers did for us,--and we have no real chance to see all that otherfor the boy: his interest and necessities rule the whole house,--but the le hour she has no rest with hiive the breast for two years)--no sleep except when he allows it,--and yet it all is joy for her How they have already taught him japanese politeness, how to prostrate hi and last at night,--to ask for things, putting his hands in the proper way,--to ss before he can pronounce theel-patience and love alone could have done it I want her to wean hiry at the mere idea It is only in hoh to each other,--shohat human nature is--the beauty of it, the divinity of it We are otherwise all on our guard against each other I cannot say how happy I think you are--you can see Souls without ar you That is the joy of life, after all--isn't it?
LAFCADIO HEARN
TO SENTARO NIshi+DA
KOBE, January, 1895
DEAR NIshi+DA,--I have just written to Mr Senke, to apologize for delay in sending my annual contribution--which I had hoped to be able to do as a japanese citizen But this et naturalized
The Governor of Hyogo did a very strange thing--informed the British Consul that I was to , presumably before the Consul, that I intended to be faithful to the Emperor of japan, and to obey the laws I did h to forward it But I believe he is doing this out of personal kindness; for I do not think it is according to English ideas, lish laws, for a Consul to accept such a declaration at all Indeed, as asked was equivalent to requesting the English Consul to accept an English subject's renunciation of allegiance to Queen Victoria,--and I aid disciplinarian, in this case allowed me to sub is sure, that others ant to beco to have plenty of trouble Theseever before exacted--for example, in the case of Warburton and other Kobe residents who became japanese subjects, perhaps for business reasons
I a Setsu a house, either in Kobe or Kyoto
When I say Kobe, I o, really; for I cannot well afford to buy land at 40 to 70 per _tsubo_ in the back streets of Kobe In Hyogo, I can do better Setsu and I both agree that Kobe is warmer than Kyoto; but, except for the winter months, I should rather live in Kyoto than in any part of japan Tokyo is the most horrible place in japan, and I want to live in it just as short a time as possible The weather is atrocious;--the earthquakes are fearson element and the japanese officialism of Tokyo must be dreadful I want to feel and see _japan_: there is no japan in Tokyo But in spite of all I say, Setsu thinks of Tokyo just as a French lady thinks of Paris After she has passed a winter there, perhaps she will not like Tokyo so ine that she thinks the Tokyo,--the really beautiful Tokyo--of the old picture-books, and the bank-bills, still exists Then she knows all the faes and streets and temples,--and these are associated in her ends of japan Perhaps I should love Tokyo just as much as she does, if I knew the history and the traditions of the country as well
[Illustration: LAFCADIO HEARN'S FAVOURITE DWELLING-HOUSE]
You will be pleased to hear that land It is very hard to win attention there, but much more important than to win it in Aland than my first book did I don't knoill be said of ”Kokoro:” it is a terribly ”radical” book--at variance with all English conventions and beliefs However, if you and my few japanese friends like it, I shall be happy
I wish you were here to eat soot to tell you that Finck, rote that book about japan, is rather celebrated (perhaps celebrated is too strong a word--_well known_ is better) as the author of a book called ”Romantic Love and Personal Beauty”
Ever faithfully, LAFCADIO HEARN
TO ELLWOOD HENDRICK
KOBE, January, 1895
DEAR HENDRICK:--Three books and a catalogue reached , and a volume by Morris--for which ht difference between us
It now sees conceivable I can't waste it by going out to hear people talk nonsense,--or by going to see pretty girls whoa letters written s to say Of course Idone it, I feel that so much of my life has been wasted--sinfully wasted There are rich natures who can afford the waste; but I can't, because the best part ofdirections and I shall have to work like thunder till I die toreht of a few truths on the way
I ht say that I have become indifferent to personal pleasures of any sort,--except syht represent a sonificant, I think, is the feeling that the greatest pleasure is to work for others,--for those who take it as a matter of course that I should do so, and would be as much amazed to find me selfish about it as if an earthquake had shaken the house down Really I a to think this; I feel it so much that it has become a part of me
Then of course, I like a little success and praise,--though a big success and big praise would scarehas occasionally unhinged ement And I have to be very careful
Next, I have to acknowledge to feeling a sort of resents in which I used to take pleasure I can't look at a number of the _Petit Journal pour Rire_ or the _Charivari_ without vexation, aler I can't find pleasure in a French novel written for the obvious purpose of appealing to instincts that interfere with perception of higher things than instincts I would not go to see the Paris opera if it were next door and I had a free ticket--or, if I did go, it would be for the sake of observing the pleasure given to somebody else I should not like to visit thedress You see how absurd I have become--and this without any idea of principle about thewhich does not help the best of myself--small as it may be Whenever by chance I happen to eneral rule, work suffers in consequence