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18 their doors to the world and to enter into the comity of Western nations, they came to a momentous decision, and having decided, picked up the gauntlet which had been thrown down with a rapidity which astonished the world, and plunged headlong, and with altogether unlooked-for success, into the arena of international rivalry and competition.

That they regard their victories in battle merely as a means to an end, and not as an end in themselves, must be evident to any one who has had the opportunity of making even a superficial study of the country. Nothing is more galling to the susceptibilities of the educated Japanese than to find themselves the object of erroneous supposition upon this point. "On what grounds," asks Baron Shibusawa bitterly, "did I meet with so warm a reception at the hands of the prominent men of the world?"—and he himself supplies the unpalatable reply: "The President of the United States praised Japan because of her military prowess and fine arts. Are not Germany, France, and England praising Japan up to the skies on the same ground? If the