Page:Through the torii (IA throughtorii00noguiala).pdf/69

 been comfortable by the side of a glorious fire? And is not individualism a product of Western wealth, spiritual and unspiritual? It seems to me that the egoism of Ibsen, Shaw and many others is accidental, being a freak of a situation in which they found themselves; they might be a different sort of writers if they had only a little fire-box to make them look happy in winter, as in Japan. While wealth is a Western weakness, poverty or want of comfort is the keynote of our Japanese civilisation, if we have any. It is our strength to let artistic appreciation make a balance in all the phases of Japanese life; art is the necessity with us, though it may be a luxury in the West.

Japan, at least old Japan, succeeded in teaching to everything, human or unhuman, a proper amount of etiquette, the first principle of which is to understand your own place; the manner which the little Japanese fire-box is pleased to express is most admirable, It would not dare to step up on to a tokonoma or raised place of art in the drawing-room, or even attempt to approach it too closely; I can imagine a gentle talk of Japanese women in Rh