Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/26

 modest studentship. One advantage only she claimed over other States. It was the divine origin of her rulers and the consequent guardianship extended to her by the gods. But her deities were not supposed to contribute anything to her material civilisation. Their most beneficent function was tutelary. Hence her people never classed themselves above other nations in a progressive sense. They were always perfectly ready to accept and adopt every good thing that a foreign country had to offer, whether of philosophy, of art, of technique, of administration, or of legislation. That is a fact which stands out in doubly leaded capitals on the pages of Japan's story. From the very earliest hours of her national career the stranger was welcomed within her gates. Whoever brought to her any product of foreign learning, genius, or industry, whether from China, from Korea, or from the South Seas, was received with acclaim, and not merely granted a domicile, but also admitted to many of the most honourable offices the State had to bestow, and to the highest ranks of the social organisation. Many of her noble families trace their origin to emigrants from the Asiatic continent; many of her artists and men of letters are proud to show a strain of Chinese or Korean blood in their lineage.

There was, indeed, a long break in the continuity of that liberal attitude, a break of more than two hundred years. From the early part of the seventeenth century to the middle of the