Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/45

 journals, with few exceptions, still show that instead of making opportunities for themselves, the people look to have them made for them officially. If they had stores of spare capital seeking investment, they would act a very different part on the neighbouring continent. But chill poverty freezes the current of their activity, and while they have an abundance of the imperial instinct, they lack the means of making it potential. That difficulty must cripple Japan seriously. A poor nation has never been great. She may succeed in filling her purse before the time comes to open it, but no resources now in sight definitely promise such a result. All that can be said of her is that she has boundless ambition; that she has established her ability to reach great ends with small means, and that she will certainly bid for a far higher place than she has yet attained.