Page:The Awakening of Japan, by Okakura Kakuzō; 1905.djvu/97

 Every new life was built on the debris of the past and amid the tumultuous crash of a myriad of dissolving worlds. A reincarnation was self-realization on a different plane. How magnificent is change! How beautiful the great transition known as life and death!

The Japanese Oyomians delighted in the image of the dragon. Have you seen the dragon? Approach him cautiously, for no mortal can survive the sight of his entire body. The Eastern dragon is not the gruesome monster of medieval imagination, but the genius of strength and goodness. He is the spirit of change, therefore of life itself. We associate him with the supreme power or that sovereign cause which pervades everything, taking new forms according to its surroundings, yet never seen in a final shape. The