Volume II Part 25 (2/2)
L H
TO PAGE M BAKER
KOBE, January, 1896
DEAR PAGE,--What a pleasure your letter was--in spite of the typewriting! How shall I answer it? From the end backwards,--as the last was the o that we used to sit together--sometimes in your office, sometimes upon a doorstep, solass of so,--and talk such talk as I never talked since It is very nearly ten years ago That is quite true But you say that ain, and that I have made myriads of friends by my books
That is not quite so true as you think You think so only because you have still the heart of the old Southern gentleman,--the real aristo
and soldier,--the ht, and expected other people to do the same, and lived in a world where people did so
That is why also you remain for me quite distinct and different from other men: you have never lost your ideals--therefore you can remain ideal to others, as you will always do tothat I have ains by disillusion, and the change that coain But book-success! No: it seehtest success has to be very dearly paid for It brings no friends at all, but raph-hunters, and letters enclosingsubscriptions to all sorts of sha societies, and requests to call on people who ratify the meanest sort of curiosity,--that which views a fellow creature _only_ as a curiosity Then, of course, there are uncounted little tricks and advertising dodges to be avoided like pitfalls,--and extravagant pretences of syenuine, made for utilitarian purposes Then there are all sorts of little snobberies and patronizings and disappointet shabby and threadbare in memory; and I pick it up and wonder how I could have written it, and ht it, and find that the criticisms which I didn't like were nearly all true Soood, and think I have really done well; but that very soon passes, and in a day or two I find I have been all wrong, and sure never to write anything quite right
The fact see becoht hard work; and the reward of the pleasure of finishi+ng it is not for me, because I have nobody to talk to about it, and nobody to take it up, and read it infinitely better than I could do htful criticisaries in the _T-D_ office, after the proofs came down How I should like to have that experience onceof mine quite fresh from the composition-room,--with the wet sharp inky sained otherwise You also For there is so in everybody--the best of him, too, isn't it?--which only unfolds in him when he has to think about his double,--the other self to which he has given existence; and then he sees things differently I suppose you do
I iine you must now be ever so much more lovable than you used to be--but that you have less of yourself proportionately to give away If I were in New Orleans I don't think that I could coax you to talk after a fixed hour: you would say, ”--! it's after twelve o'clock: I must be off!”
What you write about little Miss Constance is very sweet I hope soon to send her some japanese fairy-tales written by your humble servant;--that is, I _hope_; for the Tokyo publisher is awfully slow in getting them out You have had anxiety, I find But the delicacy that causes it anization; and the anxieties will be well co froraph, alraph later on I shall send one of Kazuo in a few days We were terribly frightened about his; but after a feeeks he picked up well He gets taller, and every day surprises us with soet fairer always instead of darker--nobody now ever takes him to be a japanese boy He is very jealous of his mother,--won't allow er randparents, they all obey him,--and pay no attention at all to my wishes unless they happen to be in harmony with his own Certainly japanese people are kinder to children than any other people in the world,--too good altogether
Still, they do not spoil children,--for as a general rule they ely, incomprehensibly obedient I don't understand it,--except as heredity: indeed, I er I live in japan, the less I know about the japanese
”That is a sign,” says one Oriental friend, ”that you are beginning to understand It is only when a foreigner confesses he knows nothing about us that there is some reason to expect he will understand us later on”
About the letters, I need only say, perhaps, that I shall give you the best of what I write this year (excepting, of course, essays on Buddhist philosophy, or stuff of that sort, which would be out of place, no doubt, in a newspaper) I ht to reach you next March It is rather a crazy book; but I wish I could hear you _read_ one or two pages in it
Ever affectionately, LAFCADIO HEARN
TO OCHIAI
KOBE, February, 1896
DEAR OCHIAI,--I ahted that you have taken up medicine, for two reasons First, it will assure your independence--your ability to maintain yourself, and to help your people Secondly, it will change all your ideas about the world we live in, and will e-minded in many ways, if you study well For in these days, you cannot studymany different branches of science--che of the nature of the great y, which will show you that the most ordinary huenius ever invented,--biology, which will give you perceptions of the eternal lahich shape all fory, which will show you that all life is shaped, after methods that no man can understand, out of one substance into y, which will teach you how the whole history of a species or a race is shown in the developan unfolds and develops in the wonderful process of growth The study of e extent, the study of the universe and of universal laws,--and h to master its principles Of course youreally great with a subject that he does not like There are s in it which you will have to face; but you must not be repelled by these, because the facts behind them are very beautiful and wonderful There is so much in medicine--such a variety of subjects, that you will have a wide choice before you in case some particular branch should not be attractive to you
Also do not forget that your knowledge of English will be of great use to you in ive you plenty of chance to indulge that love (So physicians) In Kobe I find that solish very useful to them, not only in their practice, but also in their private studies But you will also have to learn Gere will open to you a very wonderful literature, if you like literature--not to speak of the scientific advantages of Gerood news fro of you, and believe me ever anxious for your success
Very truly always, LAFCADIO HEARN
TO SENTARO NIshi+DA
KOBE, February, 1896
DEAR NIshi+DA,--I should have answered your kindest letter before now but for illness,--so I only sent a photo of Kazuo, as I had a cold in my eyes, nose, chest, back; a most atrocious and damnable cold, which rendered any work out of the question