Volume II Part 23 (2/2)

at all;--there is si the Turanian races

All Aryan races have the i Children do not kiss their parents;--but the pressing of cheek to cheek is nearly the sa--as a demonstration Mothers lip their little ones;--but--how shall I explain? The kiss, as we understand it in the Occident, is considered not as an affectionate, but as a _sexual_ impulse, or as of kin to such an impulse Now this is absolutely true

Undoubtedly thein 99,997 cases out of 99,998 But the original pri lip to lip, as Aryan races do, or even lip to cheek, is physiologically traceable to the love which is too often called _l'aher sense of affection With us the impulse of a child to kiss is absolutely _instinctive_ The japanese child has no such i is none the less delicious

On the other hand, it is significant that the japanese word for ”dear,” ”lovable” is also used to signify ”sweetness” of the material saccharine kind But perhaps this is offset by the fact that japanese confectionery, though delicious, never nauseates through over-sweetness; and that the quantity of sugar used is very ets tired of _kwashi+_; but pluly used Perhaps ant too s essentially temperate and self-restrained--as a people Of course, Western notions and exain to spoil them a little

It is possible by the time this reaches you that I shall have beco yet about it) If I lish, and loses the right to hold property in her own country Marrying her by japanese custoal, without special peret the perlish, and the _boy_ too Soto every al by ne, and the wife and fa father, h a will, which relatives can dispute I therefore cut the puzzle by changing nationality, and beco a japanese Then I lose all chance of Governlishman who becomes a japanese is only paid by the japanese scale

Also I lose the really powerful protection given to Englisher than consular fees, and my boy becomes liable to military service (But that won't hurt hiive him a scientific education abroad

The trouble is I a in some Buddhist cemetery before I can see him quite independent

I have lost friends because their wives didn't like me--more than once;--as Chamberlain says, ”No: you'll never be a ladies' h your own letters;--and if I can ever see you again, I know that, although not a ladies' itive visitor Say everything grateful to her for old-head,--and regards to all friends

LAFCADIO HEARN

TO BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN

KOBE, July, 1895

DEAR CHAMBERLAIN,--In reading Schopenhauer (I believe you have the splendid Haldane & Kemp version in three volumes: it is said to preserve even the reinal), you h want of knowledge undeveloped in his tireatest of the evolutionists before Darwin, greater even than Goethe,--he finds fault with his theory as not showing proof of the prototype for are derived Therefore Schopenhauer insisted on the potential prototype existing in the Will only But since Schopenhauer's day, the material formless prototypal animal has been found; and the theory of Schopenhauer as to forion of pure metaphysics

He is none the less valuable on that account He represents the soul (psyche) of an enormous fact, or at least a soul which can be fitted to the body of science for the ti He has been justly called a German Buddhist; and his philosophy is entirely based on the study of Brahmanic and Buddhist texts The only absolutely novel theory in his book is the essay on sexual love,--vol 3 in your edition There is one defect in it, but that does not hurt the value of the whole And then the splendour of style, of self-assertion, of iery Huxley equalled only, I think twice, in all of his essays Of course Schopenhauer belongs to the evolutional school; that is the reason why he has been taken up to-day after long neglect His work gives new force to evolutional psychology of the new school The most remarkable popular effect of the newer school has not, I think, yet been noticed It is in fiction; and the success of a work taken in this line recently has made a fortune for publishers and author Unfortunately, poor I have not the constructive art necessary to atte of the kind--not yet!

Perhaps in twenty years more

Very faithfully, LAFCADIO HEARN

TO BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN

KOBE, August, 1895

DEAR CHAMBERLAIN,--A delicious surprise,--though one that gave some pain; for I suffered to think you should have used your eyes to such an extent for my sake Mason, too, one day actually wrotefor ot from another source): I should be pained to have either of you try your eyes for aries Please don't think me too selfish;--it was siain

I think I et is the rhyth,--and that none of my people can remember They said it was very wonderful, but very difficult to catch: so that it would seem some melodies are as hard for the japanese themselves to learn by ear, as they are for us to so learn

I had the same curious experience at Sakai and in Kizuki; yet I asked persons who had been listening to the singing for several hours, and were natives of the place They all said, ”Ah! that is very difficult

So a good _ondo tori_ is hard to find; and they are paid well to coain I shall try to syllabify the measure on paper

I can feel the popular s I cannot But there is a queer variation in tone used inwhich is very effective The leader suddenly turns down his voice nearly a full octave, and all the chorus follow: it is like a sudden and terrible ain

What you tell ot everything that could be got there in an astonishi+ngly short tis,--, etc,--very artless The Nara and Koins _Entre nous_ I am sorry to say that the _ht to be, there is no use specifying in any public way It would be like denying the virtue of nuns in general, because one or two sisters fall fro to insist too much on realis to japan, so I must send you a photo of Yuko Hatakeyama I had it copied from a badly faded one--so it does not come out well You are not of those who refuse to see beyond the visible; and though there is nothing beautiful or ideal in this figure, it was certainly the earthly chrysalis of a very precious and beautiful soul, which I have tried to make the West love a little bit So youto please ravures porno-or seraphiques, Saint Anthony and French courtesans and angels ,--astonished at the revulsion of feeling it produced in myself