Volume II Part 29 (1/2)

I aeneral, and all ever known by , it was given me to meet a velvet soul or two--presences () which with a word or look wrapped all your being round in a softness and warood word

The effect is ht and warer from lands of consumption and rheumatism These souls are intellectual in many cases, but that is not the interest of them--the interest is purely emotional A purely intellectual person is unpleasant; and I fancy our religion is chiefly hateful because it makes its Gods of the intellectual kind now-a-days I should like to write about such souls--but how difficult A queer thing for me is that in memory _they unite_, without distinction of sex, into one divine type of perfect tenderness and sy Creatures of Dante's Paradise composed of many different persons I have found such souls also in japan--but only japanese souls But they are ht

LAFCADIO

PS A very sad but curious story A charh rank, bore twins A Western woman would be proud and pleased Shame struck the japanese mother down She became insane for shaine the cruelty of such a popular idea,--a peasant would have borne the trouble well,--but a daughter of princes--no!

TO SENTARO NIshi+DA

TOKYO, 1897

DEAR NIshi+DA,--Your last kind letter came just after I had posted mine to you Since then I have been horribly busy, and upset, and confused,--and even norite rather because feeling asha silent, than because I have tiot a house only on the 29th, and are only half-settled now

The house is large--two-storied, and new--but not pretty, and there is no garden (at least nothing which deserves to be called a garden) We moved into it _before it was finished_, so as to make sure of it It is all japanese, of course--ten roohty houses!--a very old man, a _Sakeya_, na,--that he has ht hundred houses) He buries poor people free of charge--that is one of his ways of showing charity He has one superintendent ithof the houses The house is very far froome, and almost at the very end of Tokyo But it was a case of _shi+kata ga nai_

I teach only twelve hours I have no text-books except for two classes,--one of which studies Milton's ”Paradise Lost” and the other Tennyson's ”Princess” (at est ”Paradise Lost;” but as the students wanted in different divisions of the class to study different books, ht, sixty-three voted for ”Paradise Lost”! Curious! (Just because it was hard for them, I suppose) My other classes are special, and receive lectures on special branches of English literature (such as Ballad Literature, Ancient and Modern; Victorian Literature, etc);--the professor being left free to do as he pleases Of course, the position, as I try to fill it, will be an expensive one I shall probably have to buy 1000 worth of books before next su will be less expensive The classes are very badly arranged (_badly_ is a gentle word); for the 1st, 2d and 3d years of literature ether another class;--the 3d by itself a third class You will see at once how difficult to try to establish a syste it, however,--with Professor Toyaed next year

The students have been very kind and pleasant My old ku, and I made a speech to them They meet in the same temple where Yaoya-O-shi+chi used to meet Kichizo Sama,--her acolyte-lover It is called Kichijoji--I es, others ere professors, others engineers I felt rather happy

Professor Toyama I like more and more He is a curious man,--really a _solid_ man and a htforward He _can_ be very sarcastic, and is very skilful at n professors are rather afraid of his jokes: I have heard him make some sharp ones But he does not joke yet with me directly--seereat deal about English authors and their values,--but says very little about his own studies I do not understand how he found tilish and Aave me some kind hints about the students--told me exactly what they liked, and how far to hu talk with hi The doctor had invited five of us to dinner

What else is there to tell you? I must not say too much about the mud, the bad roads, the horrible confusion caused by the laying-down of those neater-pipes The weather is vile, and Tokyo is hideous in Ushi+go its nest She is fixing up her new holy weather it is

In Tokyo we find everything _very_ cheap,--except house-rent And even house-rent is much lower than in Kobe,--veryhouse; but I expect to do even better than that

Affectionate regards,

LAFCADIO HEARN (Y KOIZUMI)

TO SENTARO NIshi+DA

TOKYO, 1897

DEAR NIshi+DA,--This(the 17th) Mr Takahashi+ caentle able to talk japanese to hiht a most beautiful present--a tea-set of a sort I had never even seen before,--”crackled”

porcelain inside to the eye, and outside a chocolate-coloured clay etched with pretty designs of houses and groves and lakes with boats upon theht--especially as they were ave ht er,--so I have hopes of pleasant chats with you He told us entleman; and I felt quite cluentleman of the japanese school I think I should like any of your friends Mr Takahashi+ had so of h, like I used to feel in Izu; and as I never make any visits or acquaintances outside of hbourhood, I have become also rather _henjin_ But I have written half a new book I as I most wish to put into it--stories of real life--have not yet been written I have finished only the philosophical chapters One subject is ”Nirvana,” and another the study of matter in itself as unreality,--or at least as a temporary apparition only Then I have taken up the defence of japanese , under the title of ”Faces in the Old Picture-Books” My public, however, is not all composed of thinkers; and I have to please thethem stories sometimes After all, every public more or less resembles a school-class They say, just like my students always used to say when they felt very tired or sleepy, hot days,--”Teacher, we are tired: please tell us some extraordinary story”

I can't just now remember when--at Matsue--aHe caotten the name He looked a little like Mr Takahashi+;--but there was so different in his face,--a little sad, perhaps When the class was over he caood and kind, and pressedthat experiences of this kind are often ah they are so short I have often dreamed of that man Often and often And the dream is always the same He is the director of a beautiful little school in a very large garden, surrounded by high white walls I go into that garden by an iron gate It is always suentle and earnest and pleasant and beautiful, just as it used to be in Matsue,--and he always repeats the nice things he said long ago If I can ever find that school, with the white walls and the iron gate,--I shall want to teach there, even if the salary be only the nice things said at the end of the class But I fear the school is hosts Or perhaps it is in _Horai_

Ever with best regards from all of us, faithfully,

LAFCADIO HEARN

TO ELLWOOD HENDRICK

TOKYO, August, 1897