Volume II Part 25 (1/2)
Exercise was difficult at first; but now I a every day, I have kept quite well
Kazuo, except for a cold, is all a father can iine He talks very well now, and tries to draw a little I et rich for his sake if I have any brains to ood fortune for me I am not too hopeful; but I think it is --until I find whether I can do well by it Should I succeed I can travel everywhere, and Kazuo's education abroad would not be a cause of anxiety
Ever arards, LAFCADIO HEARN
TO ELLWOOD HENDRICK
KOBE, December, 1895
DEAR HENDRICK,--Eyes a little better, and courage reviving Moreover I enclose letter showing prospects in a better light The book is to be out in spring
My boy is beginning to talk, and to look better He walks now He hasfairer I shall send a photo of him as soon as I think the difference froh to interest you
What succeeds like force?--eh? See what japan has now become in the eyes of the world! Yet that as unjust, unnecessary It was forced upon japan She knew her strength Her people wished to turn that strength against European powers Her rulers, ainst China,--just to show the West what she could do, if necessary
Thus she has secured her autonomy But let no man believe japan hates China China is her teacher and her Palestine I anticipate a reaction against Occidental influence after this war, of a very serious kind
japan has always hated the West--Western ideas, Western religion She has always loved China Free of European pressure, she will assert her old Oriental soul again There will be no conversion to Christianity
No! not till the sun rises in the West And I hope to see a United Orient yet bound into one strong alliance against our cruel Western civilization If I have been able to do nothing else in my life, I have been able at least to help a little--as a teacher and as a writer, and as an editor--in opposing the growth of what is called society and what is called civilization It is very little, of course,--but the Gods ought to love o every year for six months to uncivilized lands--such as Java, Borneo, etc If I have good luck with
Love to you, LAFCADIO
TO ELLWOOD HENDRICK
TOKYO, January, 1896
DEAR HENDRICK,--It is really queer, you know--this university It is iest the picturesque past, surrounding a structure that ht be in the city of Boston, or in Philadelphia, or in London, without appearing at all out of place There is even a large, deserted, wood-shadowed Buddhist terounds!
The students have uniforms and peculiar caps with Chinese letters on theularly wear the uniforeneral return to sandals and robes and _haka the university ht not to be allowed in the university at all for certain branches Soe but French attend Ger of any European language attend lectures on philology
What is the university, then?--is it only a mask to impose upon the intellectual West? No: it is the best japan can do, but it has the fault of being a gate to public office Get through the university, and you have a post--a start in life Fancy the outside Oriental pressure to force lads through--the influences intercrossing and fully, the poithin is little more than nominal Who rules in fact? nobody exactly Certainly the Directing President does not,--nor do the heads of colleges, except in raduates of Gerlish, or French or Aht to be--but they do only what they can Soer than they,--political perhaps, certainly social,--overawes the whole business
[Illustration: MR HEARN'S GARDEN IN TOKYO]
I ought not to say anything, and won't _except to you_ No foreign professor sayshome None have had just cause to cos were as they are in the West, I wouldn't be allowed to teach (there would be a deentleman) I lecture on subjects which I do not understand; and yet without reh to steer those who know much less After a year or two I shall probably bein one class, for a university text, Tennyson's ”Princess”
(my selection); in another, ”Paradise Lost,”--the students wanted it, because they heard it was difficult They are beginning to perceive that it is unspeakably difficult for they or history) I lecture on the Victorian poets, etc, and on special theood deal on dictation
Only two and one half miles from the university Seas of o, and one to return by jinrikisha!--agony unspeakable But I have one joy No one ever drea to see me To do so one should have webbed feet and be able to croak and to spawn,--or else one should become a bird It has rained for three months almost steadily;--some of the city is under water: the rest is partly under mud And to increase the amphibious joy, half the streets are torn open to put down Western water-mains They will yawn thus, probably, for years to come
The professors I have seen few of I send you two books; notice the charister Artiuood-natured and a little--odd There is a Russian professor of philosophy, Von Koeber,--a charo-and-be-damned-to-you American professor of law There is a Jesuit priest, Emile Heck,--professor of French literature There is a Buddhist priest, professor of Buddhisreat philosopher, Inoue Tetsujiro,--lectures against Western Christianity, and on Buddhisade,--a man lost to all sense of sha atheislish Literature and various villainous notions of his own
The Jesuit I did not want to know I am afraid of Jesuits Out of the corner of antly dressed,--with a beard enormous, bushy, ht black caressing demoniac eye The Director, who knows not, introduced hts contrasted with the perfect courtesy of the ot questioned without receiving any idea in return except an idea of ad keenness Felt uncomfortable all day after--talked to myself as if I had still before me the half-shut Jesuit eye and the vast and voluminous beard _Et le fin au prochain numero,--ou plus tard_