Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/301

Rh as Japanese flowers are in scent—a sad confession of the moral and intellectual tone of the tourists themselves! Those who associate fragrance with roses only, or morality with con- ventional Christianity, are sure to be disappointed in finding but little of either in Japan ; but that is no proof that the Umi blossoms are not fragrant, or that Chivalry does not teach the best conduct of life. There is, however, good reason for the busy West to know so little of the Far East, especially regarding things that cannot be bought or sold with cash, for we have made neither the essence of the Umi to be bottled in flasks, like attar of roses, nor the precepts of Knighthood to be bound into a gilt-edged pocket edition like Episcopal or Methodist theology. Even the European form of Chivalry, I understand, is nowadays well-nigh incomprehensible to an ordinary English reader. A recent writer on the subject speaks of it as ‘a rule of sentiment and conduct which is more remote from modern life than the rules which prevailed in the times of the Greeks and Romans’ (Cornish F. Warre, ‘Chivalry,’ p. 10). How much more difficult must it be to make our Chivalry intelligible to Europe! Still, a little familiarity will show that a gentleman is everywhere a gentleman, much of the same type, and not very different in any respect. Read the Chronicles of Froissart or the Waverley Novels, and is there really so little in common between you and their heroes? Divest them of their armour, of their quaint manners, of their odd circumstances, or, rather, look steadfastly into them until, as Carlyle would say, they become transparent, and you see in the soul of a knight the soul of a modern gentleman. Do the same with a Samurai (Japanese knight), and you can easily understand our system of Chivalry and our morals.

The age of Chivalry is said to have passed away. As an institution it has disappeared, but sad will be the day when the virtues it has inculcated shall likewise disappear! Fortunately for us, like a disembodied spirit, they still live on, somewhat modified, but still, in their essence, remaining the same. The world has surely become richer by the legacy which Chivalry has left behind. Very properly has Hallam said:

‘There are, if I may so say, three powerful spirits, which have from time to time moved on the face of the waters, and given a predominant impulse to the moral sentiments and energies of mankind. These are the spirits of liberty, of religion, and honour.’

If it is the general law of evolution that progeny represents and combines in itself all that has preceded it, then it follows that modern England must show, as it actually does, traces of feudal institutions, and modern English traces of chivalric