Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/274

262 on European nerves and prevents true intellectual sympathy.

One more quotation only. It is from the, a missionary of many years standing, and epitomises what hundreds of residents have thought and said:—

"A few months do not suffice to give a correct understanding of the situation, though the visitor should enjoy the kind attention and guidance of high officials. There are perhaps no people under heaven who know better the happy art of entertaining their guests, and none perhaps who succeed better in preoccupying them with their views. Indeed, the universal experience of those who remain long enough in this country to see beneath the surface is that first impressions are very deceitful."

To sum up: the average judgment formed by those who have lived some time among the Japanese, seems to resolve itself into three principal items on the credit side, which are cleanliness, kindliness, and a refined artistic taste, and three items on the debit side, namely, vanity, unbusinesslike habits, and an incapacity for appreciating abstract ideas.

As for the imitativeness which strikes all observers, we hesitate to which side of the account to pass it. Most persons seem to blame it as a symptom of intellectual inferiority: they term it lack of originality. By some we have heard it commended as a proof of practical wisdom in a world where most ideas of any value have been ventilated already. Whether it be good or bad, one cannot but marvel at seeing into what finicky details imitation is carried. This will strike even a new-comer, but it impresses itself on an old hand with ever-increasing force. We remember, for example, that some years ago the question was gravely debated as to whether the custom of "April fool" should or should not be introduced into Japan! That particular suggestion happens to have been rejected; but the fact of its being mooted at all may serve to instance the extraordinary lengths to which the passion for adopting things foreign has been pushed.

So far this little symposium on the mental characteristics of the Japanese. Any one who thinks it not full enough or not