Page:The influence of commerce on civilization (IA influenceofcomme00ellerich).pdf/34

28 assimilated them. Far from being satisfied with the present state of things, the Japanese, every time they turn their eyes to the world, itch to avail themselves of any superior points of other nations, and that is the reason why they have sprung up so suddenly".

In these references to religion and comparison with Western ideas of their own customs and civilization Count Okuma indicates the spirit of inquiry, or it may he called the apostle of unrest, begotten in the Japanese breast by the contact created by commerce with Western nations and their ideas. It is a singular and interesting thing to witness the return of the cycle of thought from East to West, where the East enquires of the West for whatever is good in her philosophy, whence in earlier times the West derived all that she holds most sacred in learning and knowledge. But we cannot put Japan on a level with China in ancient civilization. Japan acknowledges her tribute to India and China for her Buddhist religion, and some centuries ago Japan adopted the Chinese written language as her own. No such classics survive in Japan, at least to my knowledge, which will compare with those of China. Indeed, many of the arts and sciences of Japan in ancient times were derived from and adopted from China. Japan has during the last fifty years since her latest contact with Western civilization always been of an acquisitive and enquiring mind. Count Okuma has, as I have stated above, referred to the examination by Japanese theologians of Western religious systems. I would lust like to record a most interesting incident that occurred to myself in Japan on this very point. In 1878 I was in Kiôto, the ancient capital of Japan, in company with a friend who was an apt Japanese scholar and spoke the language fluently. We were in one of the greatest Buddhist temples in Kiôto; hundreds of Buddhist monks thronged the great area of the temple, dressed in surplices and hoods of various colours, purple, yellow, blue, and lilac, denoting their various ranks. My companion and I paused beside one of the great wooden pillars which supported the large roof of the great Temple of Honganchi.