Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/250

RV 222 If the England of 1837, for example,—that is to say, England as she was at the commencement of the Victorian era,—could have been suddenly projected forward to 1897, and invited to adapt herself to the moral and material conditions of the latter period, the task, though almost inconceivably difficult, would have been easier than that which Japan set herself thirty years ago, for England would at least have possessed the preliminary training, the habit of mind, and the trend of intelligence, all of which were wanting to Japan. That essential difference should be easy to remember, yet it is constantly forgotten by observers of Japan's progress. Again and again they make the mistake of measuring her acts by the standards to which they have themselves been educated. Again and again they fall into the error of deducing from her failures and perplexities the same inferences that similar perplexities and failures would suggest in Europe or America. If the citizens of Tōkyō hesitate to spend large sums upon street repair, they are accused of blind parsimony, though the fact is that, never having had any practical knowledge of really fine roadways, they have not yet learned to appreciate them. If Japanese officials do not at once succeed in solving the very difficult problem of Formosan administration, it is concluded that they lack administrative ability, though absolute lack of experience suffices to account for their ill-success.