Page:Through the torii (IA throughtorii00noguiala).pdf/206

 shallow age out of our country; is it too much to say that it is America also who encourages our spiritual corruption? Gen. Nogi's personality is too sacred, therefore unfortunate as a choice of a subject for popular treatment; his final act made a class apart; its greatness is in its rainbow-sudden prophecy, not in the performance itself. Surely Reason would pass him by, but Poetry will take note of him. I deem him great, because he alone in the modern history of Japan made Life obey his will and Death’s gold-armoured dignity shine in old splendour.

I always notice that when the Japanese expand and even impose ideas on others, it is the time when they have none of them; and they keep quiet and content like the fully-ripe chestnut snug in its burr when they have ideas. It is a half-filled wagon that makes a noise; the fully flowing sky has only the words of silence.

Pray see how the tea loses its real taste when against the sunlight, and again see how Rh