Volume II Part 41 (1/2)
TOKYO, May, 1899
DEAR MRS FENOLLOSA,--You will be shocked, I fear, when I tell you that I was careless enough to lose the address givenletter Your letters are too precious to be thus ence in this case But though I forgot the address, I forgot no word of the letter,--nor of the previous char letter, with its quotation from that very clever friend of yours (Miss Very)--the Emerson quotation from the Brahma-poem I hope you will tell me more about your friend some day; for she seems to be intellectually my friend also I liked very much what she said, as quoted by you,--who know curiously well how to give pleasure, and do it so generously, notwithstanding such raph in your last letter concerning the _feeling_ of understanding a writer better than anybody else in the whole world You seemed to think it presumptuous to , I believe, is always _true_ I have it in regard to all es of French writers, like Anatole France, Loti, Michelet, Gautier, Hugo And I know I ah I never can be a critic The fact is that the greatest critics, each of them, think likewise; and their criticisms prove them correct No two feel or appreciate an author in exactly the same way: each discerns a different value in hi the sa the saement unique in this world, and so incoe one
Thewomen to the old-fashi+oned districts The people do not understand the n visitor not of her own sex, the most extraordinary stories are set in circulation Of course, the people are not malicious in the matter; but they find such a life contrary to all their own social experience, and they judge it falsely in consequence
For myself I could sympathize with the individual,--but never with thein thecan replace what they break down Unconsciously, too, the e--the _acies_, to use the Roression
We are face to face here with the spectacle of a powerful and selfish civilization de a weaker and, in e by comparative ideals); and the spectacle is not pretty We nize the inevitable, the Cos, and this perhaps blinds one too much to the sacrifices and pains accepted by the ”noble army”
LAFCADIO HEARN
TO MITChell McDONALD
TOKYO, June, 1899
DEAR MITChell,--I reachedwith netic cloud--composed of iether superior to the things of this world Are you not as Solomon who ”made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as the sycamore-trees that are in the lowland for multitude”?
Presently I squatted down before my _hibachi_, and smoked and viewed the landscape o'er--inverted in the pocket-lens of Dr Bedloe, and invested thereby with iridescences of violet and crihts in question symbolized those fairy-tints and illusions which the two of you wove around me while I remained in the circle of your power Spell it must have been--for I cannot yet assure , and not a o The riddle reverses the case of Urashi+ue out the question whether happiness does really make the hours shorter, or does rather stretch time infinitely, like the thread of a spider No doubt, however, the true explanation lies in contrasts--the contrasts of the extraordinary change from real japanese existence to the Arace 1899 It is really, you know, like taking a single stride of a thousand years inthan the striding of Peter Schleo from the Pole to the Tropics in an afternoon--just now you are like old acquaintances who coht to talk to us as if they had not been under the ground for thirty years and more Are you all quite sure down there that you are alive? I believe _I_ ah I have to pinch myself beti glass; and my shoes tell me that I must have been out
Yet more--I have two letters to send you (They need no comment, other than that which I have inscribed upon them) I enclose them only because I know that you want to see them
By the way, I feel otherwise displeased with you I could forgive you fortrain _There was a pillar right behind you_ as you stepped off What would the not impossible Mrs
Mitchell McD of my wishes say to you for that!
Affectionately, LAFCADIO
TO MITChell McDONALD
TOKYO, June, 1899
DEAR MITChell,--Your delightful letter is with h that exa--had about 300 coh: then I had nearly a day's work packing and sending out prizes which I give lish (for that depends upon natural faculty altogether), but for the best _thinking_, which largely depends upon study and observation
Lo! I am a ”bloated bondholder” I am ”astonished” and don't knohat to say--except that I want to hug you! About the seh--fear I shall be far away then Unless it be absolutely necessary, I don't think I shall be able to coraph? If youthat you want, just as you want it (By the way, I _ht_ be able to come--in case I aet to where I want to go) We'll take counsel together Yet, you ought to know that I hate s of all kinds with hatred unspeakable
So it was a Mrs----, not a Mr---- I am afraid of Scotch people
However, that was a nice letter Perhaps I ought to send her a copy of ”Ghostly japan” But one never can tell the exact consequences of yielding to these ih for s from the uttermost coasts,--diamonds, emeralds and opals, amethysts, rubies, and topazes from the mines of Golconda What more could a felloant?
_All_ the rest is useless even when it is not shaenerally is
Haven't been idle either A on ”The Poetry and Beauty of japanese Female Names” Got all the common names I want into alphabetical order, and classified Aristocratic names ree it before I get away
Perhaps I shall not finish that dreaht finish it in a week Depends upon the Holy Ghost By the way, a thing that I had never been able to finish since I began it six years ago, and left in a drawer, has suddenly come into my present sches I leave theh, they always do
I have heard froood to land yet I fancy at present that I shall do well to become only an _associate_ of the Authors'