Volume II Part 49 (1/2)

Yours faithfully, LAFCADIO HEARN

I have reopened the envelope to acknowledge your interesting sketch of Edward Carpenter What an attractive personality

But I fear that I must shock you by my declaration of non-sympathy with much of the work of conte for socialisently, and tighten about nations as lightly as a spider's web; and then there will be revolutions! Not sympathy and fraternity and justice--but a Terror in which no her condition of human freedom ever existed than what America enjoyed between--let us say, 1870 and 1885 To effect higher conditions, a higher development of human nature would have been necessary Where have Aone? A free press has ceased to exist

Within another generation publishers' syndicates will decide what the public shall be allowed to read A h not in any periodical of influence; within another twenty years he rite only what he is told to write It is a pleasure to read the brave good things sometimes uttered in prints like the _Conservator_ or _The Whim_; but those papers are but the candlesticks in which free thought nowIn the so-called land of freedom men and women are burnt at the stake in the presence of Christian churches--for the cri to another race

The stake reestablished for the vengeance of race-hatred to-day, ious hate--uise ofof the past; and the future will be to your stock-companies, trusts, and syndicates The rule of the -machine, and as moral as a laer What socialism means really no one seems to know or care It will hed upon hts for you! You see that I cannot sympathize with the Whitmanesque ideal of democracy That ideal was the heart-felt expression of a free state that has gone by It was in itself a generous dream But social tendencies, inevitable and irresistible, are now i the dreamers to self-destruction The pleasure that in other times one could find in the literature of humanity, of brotherhood, of pity, is nus

Ever faithfully yours, L HEARN

TO MRS WETMORE

TOKYO, Septe again upon the fareat pleasure; and what the envelope contained, in the sa some little words of praise which I do not deserve, and which you ought not to have penned At least they est your real --for you must be aware that as to what is usually tere, and have always been, and will always re kind

I left the dedication of the ”Miscellany” untouched,--because the book is not a bad book in its way, and perhaps you will later on find no reason to be sorry for your good opinions of the writer I presume that you are far too clever to believe more than truth,--and I stand tolerably well in the opinion of a few estiues and pens

That little story of which you tell me the outline was admirable as an idea I wish that you had sent s, after I departed from New York--except that admirable volume of memories and portraits Of course, that paper about the morals of the insect-world was intended chiefly (so far as there was any intention whatever) to suggest to some pious people that the philosophy of Evolution does not teach that the futureand selfish ”blond beast,” as Nietzsche calls hio; but he did not, perhaps, kno English biologists had considered the ethical suggestion of insect-sociology

In spite of all h econo any I have a professorshi+p in Count Okuma's university (small fees but ample leisure); and I was able to take my boys to live with the fishermen for a month--on fish, rice, and sea-water (with sake, of course, for their sire) I have got strong again; and can use the right ar

The ”rejected addresses” will shortly appear in book-forainstto so a serious treatise on sociology It requires training beyondme, must smile--

”as a Master smiles at one That is not of his school, nor any school, Save that where blind and naked Ignorance Delivers brawling judgeht to keep to the study of birds and cats and insects and flowers, and queer ss--and leave the subject of the destiny of empires to men of brains Unfortunately, the men of brains will not state the truth as they see it If you find any good in the book, despite the conditions under which it ritten, you will recognize your share in the necessarily ephes ever come to you, and abide

Yours faithfully always, LAFCADIO HEARN

TO H FUJISAKI

SEPTEMBER 26, 1904[4]

DEAR CAPTAIN,--Your reat pleasure to receive it, and to know that you are well and strong

You have often been in hts and dreams And, of course, we have been anxious about you But the Gods seeood care of you; and your position is, froht future is before you, I cannot doubt,--in spite of the chances of war

[4] The day of Hearn's death

As you see the papers here, it will not be worth while to send you any general news As for local news,--things are very quiet, just as when you were here But many men of Okubo-ardeners, fruit-sellers, _kurumaya_, etc, have been called So the district is, perhaps, a little i away, they gave toys to the children of the neighbourhood To Kazuo they gave a little clay-model of a Russian soldier's head, and one said: ”When we co you a real one” We prize that funny little gift, as a souvenir of the giver and the tiht--we had very little rain after July But during July,--the early part,--it used to rain irregularly, in a strange way;--and with the rain there wasSeveral persons in Tokyo were killed by the lightning I i to do with the disturbed state of the atenerally had the news of a victory; so, when it began to rain hard, I used to say, ”Ah! the Russians are in trouble again!”