{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_33131/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_33131","id":"gutenberg_33131","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33131","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Japan -- Civilization","Nobel Prizes in Literature"],"text":"[Illustration]\n\n                      Library of Adelbert College\n                                   of\n                       Western Reserve University\n\n                         Gift of the Publisher\n\n\n\n\n                          THE SPIRIT OF JAPAN\n\n                               A LECTURE\n\n                                   BY\n\n                        SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE\n\n           Delivered for the Students of the Private Colleges\n             of Tokyo and the Members of the Indo-Japanese\n                          Association, at the\n                        Keio Gijuku University.\n\n                   PUBLISHED BY THE INDO-JAPANESE\n                           ASSOCIATION, TOKYO\n\n                             JULY 2, 1916.\n\n                        Copyrighted in U. S. A.\n\n\n\n\nI am glad to have this opportunity once more of speaking to you before I\nleave Japan. My stay here has been so short that one may think I have\nnot earned my right to speak to you about anything concerning your\ncountry. I feel sure that I shall be told, that I am idealising certain\naspects, while leaving others unnoticed, and that there are chances of\nmy disillusionment, if I remain here for long. For I have known\nforeigners, whose long experience has made them doubtful about your\nmoral qualifications,--even of your full efficiency in modern equipments\nof progress.\n\nBut I am not going to be brow-beaten by the authority of long\nexperience, which is likely to be an experience of blindness carried\nthrough long years. I have known such instances in my own country. The\nmental sense, by the help of which we feel the spirit of a people, is\nlike the sense of sight, or of touch,--it is a natural gift. It finds\nits objects, not by analysis, but by direct apprehension. Those who have\nnot this vision, merely see events and facts, and not their inner\nassociation. Those who have no ear for music, hear sounds, but not the\nsong. Therefore when, by the mere reason of the lengthiness of their\nsuffering, they threaten to establish the fact of the tune to be a\nnoise, one need not be anxious about music. Very often it is mistakes\nthat require longer time to develop their tangles, while the right\nanswer comes promptly.\n\nYou ask me how I can prove, that I am right in my confidence that I can\nsee. My answer is, because I see something which is positive. There are\nothers, who affirm that they see something contrary. It only shows, that\nI am looking on the picture side of the canvas, and they on the blank\nside. Therefore my short view is of more value than their prolonged\nstare.\n\nIt is a truism to say that shadows accompany light. What you feel, as\nthe truth of a people, has its numberless contradictions,--just as the\nroundness of the earth is contradicted at every step by its hills and\nhollows. Those who can boast of a greater familiarity with your country\nthan myself, can bring before me loads of contradictions, but I remain\nfirm upon my vision of a truth, which does not depend upon its\ndimension, but upon its vitality.\n\nAt first, I had my doubts. I thought that I might not be able to see\nJapan, as she is herself, but should have to be content to see the Japan\nthat takes an acrobatic pride in violently appearing as something else.\nOn my first arrival in this country, when I looked out from the balcony\nof a house on the hillside, the town of Kobe,--that huge mass of\ncorrugated iron roofs,--appeared to me like a dragon, with glistening\nscales, basking in the sun, after having devoured a large slice of the\nliving flesh of the earth. This dragon did not belong to the mythology\nof the past, but of the present; and with its iron mask it tried to look\nreal to the children of the age,--real as the majestic rocks on the\nshore, as the epic rhythm of the sea-waves. Anyhow it hid Japan from\nmy view, and I felt myself like the traveller, whose time is short,\nwaiting for the cloud to be lifted to have a sight of the eternal snow\non the Himalayan summit. I asked myself,--'Will the dense mist of the\niron age give way for a moment, and let me see what is true and abiding\nin this land?' I was enveloped in a whirlwind of reception, but I had my\nmisgivings and thought that this might be a violent outbreak of\ncuriosity,--or that these people felt themselves bound to show their\nappreciation of a man who had won renown from Europe, thus doing honour\nto the West in a vicarious form.\n\nBut the clouds showed rifts, and glimpses I had of Japan where she is\ntrue and more human. While travelling in a railway train I met, at a\nwayside station, some Buddhist priests and devotees. They brought their\nbasket of fruits to me and held their lighted incense before my face,\nwishing to pay homage to a man who had come from the land of Buddha. The\ndignified serenity of their bearing, the simplicity of their\ndevoutness, seemed to fill the atmosphere of the busy railway station\nwith a golden light of peace. Their language of silence drowned the\nnoisy effusion of the newspapers. I felt that I saw something which was\nat the root of Japan's greatness. And, since then, I have had other\nopportunities of reaching the heart of the people; and I have come to\nthe conclusion, that the welcome which flowed towards me, with such\noutburst of sincerity, was owing to the fact that Japan felt the\nnearness of India to herself, and realised that her own heart has room\nto expand beyond her boundaries and the boundaries of the modern time.\n\nI have travelled in many countries and have met with men of all classes,\nbut never in my travels did I feel the presence of the human so\ndistinctly as in this land. In other great countries, signs of man's\npower loomed large, and I saw vast organisations which showed efficiency\nin all their features. There, display and extravagance, in dress, in\nfurniture, in costly entertainments, are startling. They seem to push\nyou back into a corner, like a poor intruder at a feast; they are apt\nto make you envious, or take your breath away with amazement. There, you\ndo not feel man as supreme; you are hurled against the stupendousness of\nthings that alienates. But, in Japan, it is not the display of power, or\nwealth, that is the predominating element. You see everywhere emblems of\nlove and admiration, and not mostly of ambition and greed. You see a\npeople, whose heart has come out and scattered itself in profusion in\nits commonest utensils of everyday life in its social institutions, in\nits manners, that are carefully perfect, and in its dealings with things\nthat are not only deft, but graceful in every movement.\n\nWhat has impressed me most in this country is the conviction that you\nhave realised nature's secrets, not by methods of analytical knowledge,\nbut by sympathy. You have known her language of lines and music of\ncolours, the symmetry in her irregularities, and the cadence in her\nfreedom of movements; you have seen how she leads her immense crowds of\nthings yet avoids all frictions; how the very conflicts in her\ncreations break out in dance and music; how her exuberance has the\naspect of the fullness of self-abandonment, and not a mere dissipation\nof display. You have discovered that nature reserves her power in forms\nof beauty; and it is this beauty which, like a mother, nourishes all the\ngiant forces at her breast, keeping them in active vigour, yet in\nrepose. You have known that energies of nature save themselves from\nwearing out by the rhythm of a perfect grace, and that she with the\ntenderness of her curved lines takes away fatigue from the world's\nmuscles. I have felt that you have been able to assimilate these secrets\ninto your life, and the truth which lies in the beauty of all things has\npassed into your souls. A mere knowledge of things can be had in a short\nenough time, but their spirit can only be acquired by centuries of\ntraining and self-control. Dominating nature from outside is a much\nsimpler thing than making her your own in love's delight, which is a\nwork of true genius. Your race has shown that genius, not by\nacquirements, but by creations; not by display of things, but by\nmanifestation of its own inner being. This creative power there is in\nall nations, and it is ever active in getting hold of men's natures and\ngiving them a form according to its ideals. But here, in Japan, it seems\nto have achieved its success, and deeply sunk into the minds of all men,\nand permeated their muscles and nerves. Your instincts have become true,\nyour senses keen, and your hands have acquired natural skill. The genius\nof Europe has given her people the power of organisation, which has\nspecially made itself manifest in politics and commerce and in\ncoordinating scientific knowledge. The genius of Japan has given you the\nvision of beauty in nature and the power of realising it in your life.\nAnd, because of this fact, the power of organisation has come so easily\nto your help when you needed it. For the rhythm of beauty is the inner\nspirit, whose outer body is organisation.\n\nAll particular civilisation is the interpretation of particular human\nexperience. Europe seems to have felt emphatically the conflict of\nthings in the universe, which can only be brought under control by\nconquest. Therefore she is ever ready for fight, and the best portion of\nher attention is occupied in organising forces. But Japan has felt, in\nher world, the touch of some presence, which has evoked in her soul a\nfeeling of reverent adoration. She does not boast of her mastery of\nnature, but to her she brings, with infinite care and joy, her offerings\nof love. Her relationship with the world is the deeper relationship of\nheart. This spiritual bond of love she has established with the hills of\nher country, with the sea and the streams, with the forests in all their\nflowery moods and varied physiognomy of branches; she has taken into her\nheart all the rustling whispers and sighing of the woodlands and sobbing\nof the waves; the sun and the moon she has studied in all the\nmodulations of their lights and shades, and she is glad to close her\nshops to greet the seasons in her orchards and gardens and cornfields.\nThis opening of the heart to the soul of the world is not confined to a\nsection of your privileged classes, it is not the forced product of\nexotic culture, but it belongs to all your men and women of all\nconditions. This experience of your soul, in meeting a personality in\nthe heart of the world, has been embodied in your civilisation. It is\ncivilisation of human relationship. Your duty towards your state has\nnaturally assumed the character of filial duty, your nation becoming one\nfamily with your Emperor as its head. Your national unity has not been\nevolved from the comradeship of arms for defensive and offensive\npurposes, or from partnership in raiding adventures, dividing among each\nmember the danger and spoils of robbery. It is not an outcome of the\nnecessity of organisation for some ulterior purpose, but it is an\nextension of the family and the obligations of the heart in a wide field\nof space and time. The ideal of \"maitri\" is at the bottom of your\nculture,--\"maitri\" with men and \"maitri\" with Nature. And the true\nexpression of this love is in the language of beauty, which is so\nabundantly universal in this land. This is the reason why a stranger,\nlike myself, instead of feeling envy or humiliation before these\nmanifestations of beauty, these creations of love, feels a readiness to\nparticipate in the joy and glory of such revealment of the human heart.\n\nAnd this has made me all the more apprehensive of the change, which\nthreatens Japanese civilisation, as something like a menace to one's own\nperson. For the huge heterogeneity of the modern age, whose only common\nbond is usefulness, is nowhere so pitifully exposed against the dignity\nand hidden power of reticent beauty, as in Japan.\n\nBut the danger lies in this, that organised ugliness storms the mind and\ncarries the day by its mass, by its aggressive persistence, by its power\nof mockery directed against the deeper sentiments of heart. Its harsh\nobtrusiveness makes it forcibly visible to us, overcoming our\nsenses,--and we bring to its altar sacrifices, as does a savage to the\nfetish which appears powerful because of its hideousness. Therefore its\nrivalry to things that are modest and profound and have the subtle\ndelicacy of life is to be dreaded.\n\nI am quite sure that there are men in your nation, who are not in\nsympathy with your national ideals; whose object is to gain, and not to\ngrow. They are loud in their boast, that they have modernised Japan.\nWhile I agree with them so far as to say, that the spirit of the race\nshould harmonise with the spirit of the time, I must warn them that\nmodernising is a mere affectation of modernism, just as affectation of\npoesy is poetising. It is nothing but mimicry, only affectation is\nlouder than the original, and it is too literal. One must bear in mind,\nthat those who have the true modern spirit need not modernise, just as\nthose who are truly brave are not braggarts. Modernism is not in the\ndress of the Europeans; or in the hideous structures, where their\nchildren are interned when they take their lessons; or in the square\nhouses with flat straight wall-surfaces, pierced with parallel lines of\nwindows, where these people are caged in their lifetime; certainly\nmodernism is not in their ladies' bonnets, carrying on them loads of\nincongruities. These are not modern, but merely European. True\nmodernism is freedom of mind, not slavery of taste. It is independence\nof thought and action, not tutelage under European schoolmasters. It is\nscience, but not its wrong application in life,--a mere imitation of our\nscience teachers who reduce it into a superstition absurdly invoking its\naid for all impossible purposes.\n\nScience, when it oversteps its limits and occupies the whole region of\nlife, has its fascination. It looks so powerful because of its\nsuperficiality,--as does a hippopotamus which is very little else but\nphysical. Science speaks of the struggle for existence, but forgets that\nman's existence is not merely of the surface. Man truly exists in the\nideal of perfection, whose depth and height are not yet measured. Life\nbased upon science is attractive to some men, because it has all the\ncharacteristics of sport; it feigns seriousness, but is not profound.\nWhen you go a-hunting, the less pity you have the better; for your one\nobject is to chase the game and kill it, to feel that you are the\ngreater animal, that your method of destruction is thorough and\nscientific. Because, therefore, a sportsman is only a superficial\nman,--his fullness of humanity not being there to hamper him,--he is\nsuccessful in killing innocent life and is happy. And the life of\nscience is that superficial life. It pursues success with skill and\nthoroughness, and takes no account of the higher nature of man. But even\nscience cannot tow humanity against truth and be successful; and those\nwhose minds are crude enough to plan their lives upon the supposition,\nthat man is merely a hunter and his paradise the paradise of sportsman,\nwill be rudely awakened in the midst of their trophies of skeletons and\nskulls. For man's struggle for existence is to exist in the fullness of\nhis nature,--not by curtailing all that is best in him and dwarfing his\nexistence itself, but by accepting all the responsibilities of his\nspiritual life, even through death and defeat.\n\nI do not for a moment suggest, that Japan should be unmindful of\nacquiring modern weapons of self-protection. But this should never be\nallowed to go beyond her instinct of self-preservation. She must know\nthat the real power is not in the weapons themselves, but in the man\nwho wields those weapons; and when he, in his eagerness for power,\nmultiplies his weapons at the cost of his own soul, then it is he who is\nin even greater danger than his enemies.\n\nThings that are living are so easily hurt; therefore they require\nprotection. In nature, life protects itself within in coverings, which\nare built with life's own material. Therefore they are in harmony with\nlife's growth, or else when the time comes they easily give way and are\nforgotten. The living man has his true protection in his spiritual\nideals, which have their vital connection with his life and grow with\nhis growth. But, unfortunately, all his armour is not living,--some of\nit is made of steel, inert and mechanical. Therefore, while making use\nof it, man has to be careful to protect himself from its tyranny. If he\nis weak enough to grow smaller to fit himself to his covering, then it\nbecomes a process of gradual suicide by shrinkage of the soul. And Japan\nmust have a firm faith in the moral law of existence to be able to\nassert to herself, that the Western nations are following that path of\nsuicide, where they are smothering their humanity under the immense\nweight of organisations in order to keep themselves in power and hold\nothers in subjection.\n\nTherefore I cannot think that the imitation of the outward aspects of\nthe West, which is becoming more and more evident in modern Japan, is\nessential to her strength or stability. It is burdening her true nature\nand causing weakness, which will be felt more deeply as time goes on.\nThe habits, which are being formed by the modern Japanese from their\nboyhood,--the habits of the Western life, the habits of the alien\nculture,--will prove, one day, a serious obstacle to the understanding\nof their own true nature. And then, if the children of Japan forget\ntheir past, if they stand as barriers, choking the stream that flows\nfrom the mountain peak of their ancient history, their future will be\ndeprived of the water of life that has made her culture so fertile with\nrichness of beauty and strength.\n\nWhat is still more dangerous for Japan is, not this imitation of the\nouter features of the West, but the acceptance of the motive force of\nthe Western civilisation as her own. Her social ideals are already\nshowing signs of defeat at the hands of politics, and her modern\ntendency seems to incline towards political gambling in which the\nplayers stake their souls to win their game. I can see her motto, taken\nfrom science, \"Survival of the Fittest,\" writ large at the entrance of\nher present-day history--the motto whose meaning is, \"Help yourself, and\nnever heed what it costs to others\"; the motto of the blind man, who\nonly believes in what he can touch, because he cannot see. But those who\ncan see, know that men are so closely knit, that when you strike others\nthe blow comes back to yourself. The moral law, which is the greatest\ndiscovery of man, is the discovery of this wonderful truth, that man\nbecomes all the truer, the more he realises himself in others. This\ntruth has not only a subjective value, but is manifested in every\ndepartment of our life. And nations, who sedulously cultivate moral\nblindness as the cult of patriotism, will end their existence in a\nsudden and violent death. In past ages we had foreign invasions, there\nhad been cruelty and bloodshed, intrigues of jealousy and avarice, but\nthey never touched the soul of the people deeply; for the people, as a\nbody, never participated in these games. They were merely the outcome of\nindividual ambitions. The people themselves, being free from the\nresponsibilities of the baser and more heinous side of those adventures,\nhad all the advantage of the heroic and the human disciplines derived\nfrom them. This developed their unflinching loyalty, their single-minded\ndevotion to the obligations of honour, their power of complete\nself-surrender and fearless acceptance of death and danger. Therefore\nthe ideals, whose seats were in the hearts of the people, would not\nundergo any serious change owing to the policies adopted by the kings or\ngenerals. But now, where the spirit of the Western civilisation\nprevails, the whole people is being taught from boyhood, to foster\nhatreds and ambitions by all kinds of means,--by the manufacture of\nhalf-truths and untruths in history, by persistent misrepresentation\nof other races and the culture of unfavourable sentiments towards them,\nby setting up memorials of events, very often false, which for the sake\nof humanity should be speedily forgotten, thus continually brewing evil\nmenace towards neighbours and nations other than their own. This is\npoisoning the very fountain-head of humanity. It is discrediting the\nideals, which were born of the lives of men, who were our greatest and\nbest. It is holding up gigantic selfishness as the one universal\nreligion for all nations of the world. We can take anything else from\nthe hands of science, but not this elixir of moral death. Never think\nfor a moment, that the hurts you inflict upon other races will not\ninfect you, and the enmities you sow around your homes will be a wall of\nprotection to you for all time to come. To imbue the minds of a whole\npeople with an abnormal vanity of its own superiority, to teach it to\ntake pride in its moral callousness and ill-begotten wealth, to\nperpetuate humiliation of defeated nations by exhibiting trophies won\nfrom war, and using these in schools in order to breed in children's\nminds contempt for others, is imitating the West where she has a\nfestering sore, whose swelling is a swelling of disease eating into its\nvitality.\n\nOur food crops, which are necessary for our sustenance, are products of\ncenturies of selection and care. But the vegetation, which we have not\nto transform into our lives, does not require the patient thoughts of\ngenerations. It is not easy to get rid of weeds; but it is easy, by\nprocess of neglect, to ruin your food crops and let them revert to their\nprimitive state of wildness. Likewise the culture, which has so kindly\nadapted itself to your soil,--so intimate with life, so human,--not only\nneeded tilling and weeding in past ages, but still needs anxious work\nand watching. What is merely modern,--as science and methods of\norganisation,--can be transplanted; but what is vitally human has fibres\nso delicate, and roots so numerous and far reaching, that it dies when\nmoved from its soil. Therefore I am afraid of the rude pressure of the\npolitical ideals of the West upon your own. In political civilisation,\nthe state is an abstraction and relationship of men utilitarian. Because\nit has no roots in sentiments, it is so dangerously easy to handle. Half\na century has been enough for you to master this machine; and there are\nmen among you, whose fondness for it exceeds their love for the living\nideals which were born with the birth of your nation and nursed in your\ncenturies. It is like a child, who, in the excitement of his play,\nimagines he likes his playthings better than his mother.\n\nWhere man is at his greatest, he is unconscious. Your civilisation,\nwhose mainspring is the bond of human relationship, has been nourished\nin the depth of a healthy life beyond reach of prying self-analysis. But\na mere political relationship is all conscious; it is an eruptive\ninflammation of aggressiveness. It has forcibly burst upon your notice.\nAnd the time has come, when you have to be roused into full\nconsciousness of the truth by which you live, so that you may not be\ntaken unawares. The past has been God's gift to you; about the present,\nyou must make your own choice.\n\nSo the questions you have to put to yourselves are these,--\"Have we read\nthe world wrong, and based our relation to it upon an ignorance of human\nnature? Is the instinct of the West right, where she builds her national\nwelfare behind the barricade of a universal distrust of humanity?\"\n\nYou must have detected a strong accent of fear, whenever the West has\ndiscussed the possibility of the rise of an Eastern race. The reason of\nit is this, that the power, by whose help she thrives, is an evil power;\nso long as it is held on her own side she can be safe, while the rest of\nthe world trembles. The vital ambition of the present civilisation of\nEurope is to have the exclusive possession of the devil. All her\narmaments and diplomacy are directed upon this one object. But these\ncostly rituals for invocation of the evil spirit lead through a path of\nprosperity to the brink of cataclysm. The furies of terror, which the\nWest has let loose upon God's world, come back to threaten herself and\ngoad her into preparations of more and more frightfulness; this gives\nher no rest and makes her forget all else but the perils that she\ncauses to others, and incurs herself. To the worship of this devil of\npolitics she sacrifices other countries as victims. She feeds upon their\ndead flesh and grows fat upon it, so long as the carcasses remain\nfresh,--but they are sure to rot at last, and the dead will take their\nrevenge, by spreading pollution far and wide and poisoning the vitality\nof the feeder. Japan had all her wealth of humanity, her harmony of\nheroism and beauty, her depth of self-control and richness of\nself-expression; yet the Western nations felt no respect for her, till\nshe proved that the bloodhounds of Satan are not only bred in the\nkennels of Europe, but can also be domesticated in Japan and fed with\nman's miseries. They admit Japan's equality with themselves, only when\nthey know that Japan also possesses the key to open the floodgate of\nhell-fire upon the fair earth, whenever she chooses, and can dance, in\ntheir own measure, the devil dance of pillage, murder, and ravishment of\ninnocent women, while the world goes to ruin. We know that, in the early\nstage of man's moral immaturity, he only feels reverence for the god\nwhose malevolence he dreads. But is this the ideal of man which we can\nlook up to with pride? After centuries of civilisation nations fearing\neach other like the prowling wild beasts of the night time; shutting\ntheir doors of hospitality; combining only for purpose of aggression or\ndefence; hiding in their holes their trade secrets, state secrets,\nsecrets of their armaments; making peace offerings to the barking dogs\nof each other with the meat which does not belong to them; holding down\nfallen races struggling to stand upon their feet; counting their safety\nonly upon the feebleness of the rest of humanity; with their right hands\ndispensing religion to weaker peoples, while robbing them with their\nleft,--is there anything in this to make us envious? Are we to bend our\nknees to the spirit of this civilisation, which is sowing broadcast over\nall the world seeds of fear, greed, suspicion, unashamed lies of its\ndiplomacy, and unctuous lies of its profession of peace and good-will\nand universal brotherhood of Man? Can we have no doubt in our minds,\nwhen we rush to the Western market to buy this foreign product in\nexchange for our own inheritance? I am aware how difficult it is to know\none's self; and the man, who is intoxicated, furiously denies his\ndrunkenness; yet the West herself is anxiously thinking of her problems\nand trying experiments. But she is like a glutton, who has not the heart\nto give up his intemperance in eating, and fondly clings to the hope\nthat he can cure his nightmares of indigestion by medicine. Europe is\nnot ready to give up her political inhumanity, with all the baser\npassions of man attendant upon it; she believes only in modification of\nsystems, and not in change of heart.\n\nWe are willing to buy their machine-made systems, not with our hearts,\nbut with our brains. We shall try them and build sheds for them, but not\nenshrine them in our homes, or temples. There are races, who worship the\nanimals they kill; we can buy meat from them, when we are hungry, but\nnot the worship which goes with the killing. We must not vitiate our\nchildren's minds with the superstition, that business is business, war\nis war, politics is politics. We must know that man's business has to be\nmore than mere business, and so have to be his war and politics. You had\nyour own industry in Japan; how scrupulously honest and true it was, you\ncan see by its products,--by their grace and strength, their\nconscientiousness in details, where they can hardly be observed. But the\ntidal wave of falsehood has swept over your land from that part of the\nworld, where business is business, and honesty is followed in it merely\nas the best policy. Have you never felt shame, when you see the trade\nadvertisements, not only plastering the whole town with lies and\nexaggerations, but invading the green fields, where the peasants do\ntheir honest labour, and the hill-tops, which greet the first pure light\nof the morning? It is so easy to dull our sense of honour and delicacy\nof mind with constant abrasion, while falsehoods stalk abroad with proud\nsteps in the name of trade, politics and patriotism, that any protest\nagainst their perpetual intrusion into our lives is considered to be\nsentimentalism, unworthy of true manliness.\n\nAnd it has come to pass, that the children of those heroes, who would\nkeep their word at the point of death, who would disdain to cheat men\nfor vulgar profit, who even in their fight would much rather court\ndefeat than be dishonourable, have become energetic in dealing with\nfalsehoods and do not feel humiliated by gaining advantage from them.\nAnd this has been effected by the charm of the word 'modern.' But if\nundiluted utility be modern, beauty is of all ages; if mean selfishness\nbe modern, the human ideals are no new inventions. And we must know for\ncertain, that however modern may be the proficiency, which clips and\ncripples man for the sake of methods and machines, it will never live to\nbe old.\n\nWhen Japan is in imminent peril of neglecting to realise where she is\ngreat, it is the duty of a foreigner like myself to remind her, that she\nhas given rise to a civilisation which is perfect in its form, and has\nevolved a sense of sight which clearly sees truth in beauty and beauty\nin truth. She has achieved something, which is positive and complete.\nIt is easier for a stranger to know what it is in her, which is truly\nvaluable for all mankind,--what is there, which only she, of all other\nraces, has produced from her inner life and not from her mere power of\nadaptability. Japan must be reminded, that it is her sense of the rhythm\nof life and of all things, her genius for simplicity, her love for\ncleanliness, her definiteness of thought and action, her cheerful\nfortitude, her immense reserve of force in self-control, her\nsensitiveness to her code of honour and defiance of death, which have\ngiven her the power to resist the cyclonic storm of exploitation that\nhas sprung from the shores of Europe circling round and round the world.\nAll these qualities are the outcome of a civilisation, whose foundation\nis in the spiritual ideals of life. Such a civilisation has the gift of\nimmortality; for it does not offend against the laws of creation and is\nnot assailed by all the forces of nature. I feel it is an impiety to be\nindifferent to its protection from the incursion of vulgarity of power.\n\nBut while trying to free our minds from the arrogant claims of Europe\nand to help ourselves out of the quicksands of our infatuation, we may\ngo to the other extreme and blind ourselves with a wholesale suspicion\nof the West. The reaction of disillusionment is just as unreal as the\nfirst shock of illusion. We must try to come to that normal state of\nmind, by which we can clearly discern our own danger and avoid it,\nwithout being unjust towards the source of that danger. There is always\nthe natural temptation in us of wishing to pay back Europe in her own\ncoin, and return contempt for contempt and evil for evil. But that again\nwould be to imitate Europe in one of her worst features which comes out\nin her behaviour to people whom she describes as yellow or red, brown or\nblack. And this is a point on which we in the East have to acknowledge\nour guilt and own that our sin has been as great, if not greater, when\nwe insulted humanity by treating with utter disdain and cruelty men who\nbelonged to a particular creed, colour or caste. It is really because we\nare afraid of our own weakness, which allows itself to be overcome by\nthe sight of power, that we try to substitute for it another weakness\nwhich makes itself blind to the glories of the West. When we truly know\nthe Europe which is great and good, we can effectively save ourselves\nfrom the Europe which is mean and grasping. It is easy to be unfair in\none's judgment when one is faced with human miseries,--and pessimism is\nthe result of building theories while the mind is suffering. To despair\nof humanity is only possible, if we lose faith in the power which brings\nto it strength, when its defeat is greatest, and calls out new life from\nthe depth of its destruction. We must admit that there is a living soul\nin the West which is struggling unobserved against the hugeness of the\norganisations under which men, women and children are being crushed, and\nwhose mechanical necessities are ignoring laws that are spiritual and\nhuman,--the soul whose sensibilities refuse to be dulled completely by\ndangerous habits of heedlessness in dealings with races for whom it\nlacks natural sympathy. The West could never have risen to the eminence\nshe has reached, if her strength were merely the strength of the\nbrute, or of the machine. The divine in her heart is suffering from the\ninjuries inflicted by her hands upon the world,--and from this pain of\nher higher nature flows the secret balm which will bring healing to\nthose injuries. Time after time she has fought against herself and has\nundone the chains, which with her own hands she had fastened round\nhelpless limbs; and though she forced poison down the throat of a great\nnation at the point of sword for gain of money, she herself woke up to\nwithdraw from it, to wash her hands clean again. This shows hidden\nsprings of humanity in spots which look dead and barren. It proves that\nthe deeper truth in her nature, which can survive such career of cruel\ncowardliness, is not greed, but reverence for unselfish ideals. It would\nbe altogether unjust, both to us and to Europe, to say that she has\nfascinated the modern Eastern mind by the mere exhibition of her power.\nThrough the smoke of cannons and dust of markets the light of her moral\nnature has shone bright, and she has brought to us the ideal of\nethical freedom, whose foundation lies deeper than social conventions\nand whose province of activity is world-wide.\n\nThe East has instinctively felt, even through her aversion, that she has\na great deal to learn from Europe, not merely about the materials of\npower, but about its inner source, which is of mind and of the moral\nnature of man. Europe has been teaching us the higher obligations of\npublic good above those of the family and the clan, and the sacredness\nof law, which makes society independent of individual caprice, secures\nfor it continuity of progress, and guarantees justice to all men of all\npositions in life. Above all things Europe has held high before our\nminds the banner of liberty, through centuries of martyrdom and\nachievement,--liberty of conscience, liberty of thought and action,\nliberty in the ideals of art and literature. And because Europe has won\nour deep respect, she has become so dangerous for us where she is\nturbulently weak and false,--dangerous like poison when it is served\nalong with our best food. There is one safety for us upon which we\nhope we may count, and that is, that we can claim Europe herself, as our\nally, in our resistance to her temptations and to her violent\nencroachments; for she has ever carried her own standard of perfection,\nby which we can measure her falls and gauge her degrees of failure, by\nwhich we can call her before her own tribunal and put her to shame,--the\nshame which is the sign of the true pride of nobleness.\n\nBut our fear is, that the poison may be more powerful than the food, and\nwhat is strength in her to-day may not be the sign of health, but the\ncontrary; for it may be temporarily caused by the upsetting of the\nbalance of life. Our fear is that evil has a fateful fascination, when\nit assumes dimensions which are colossal,--and though at last, it is\nsure to lose its centre of gravity, by its abnormal disproportion, the\nmischief which it creates before its fall may be beyond reparation.\n\nTherefore I ask you to have the strength of faith and clarity of mind to\nknow for certain, that the lumbering structure of modern progress,\nriveted by the iron bolts of efficiency, which runs upon the wheels of\nambition, cannot hold together for long. Collisions are certain to\noccur; for it has to travel upon organised lines, it is too heavy to\nchoose its own course freely; and once it is off the rails, its endless\ntrain of vehicles is dislocated. A day will come, when it will fall in a\nheap of ruin and cause serious obstruction to the traffic of the world.\nDo we not see signs of this even now? Does not the voice come to us,\nthrough the din of war, the shrieks of hatred, the wailings of despair,\nthrough the churning up of the unspeakable filth which has been\naccumulating for ages in the bottom of this civilisation,--the voice\nwhich cries to our soul, that the tower of national selfishness, which\ngoes by the name of patriotism, which has raised its banner of treason\nagainst heaven, must totter and fall with a crash, weighed down by its\nown bulk, its flag kissing the dust, its light extinguished? My\nbrothers, when the red light of conflagration sends up its crackle of\nlaughter to the stars, keep your faith upon those stars and not upon the\nfire of destruction. For when this conflagration consumes itself and\ndies down, leaving its memorial in ashes, the eternal light will again\nshine in the East,--the East which has been the birth-place of the\nmorning sun of man's history. And who knows if that day has not already\ndawned, and the sun not risen, in the Easternmost horizon of Asia? And I\noffer, as did my ancestor rishis, my salutation to that sunrise of the\nEast, which is destined once again to illumine the whole world.\n\nI know my voice is too feeble to raise itself above the uproar of this\nbustling time, and it is easy for any street urchin to fling against me\nthe epithet of 'unpractical.' It will stick to my coat-tail, never to be\nwashed away, effectively excluding me from the consideration of all\nrespectable persons. I know what a risk one runs from the vigorously\nathletic crowds to be styled an idealist in these days, when thrones\nhave lost their dignity and prophets have become an anachronism, when\nthe sound that drowns all voices is the noise of the market-place. Yet\nwhen, one day, standing on the outskirts of Yokohama town, bristling\nwith its display of modern miscellanies, I watched the sunset in your\nsouthern sea, and saw its peace and majesty among your pine-clad\nhills,--with the great Fujiyama growing faint against the golden\nhorizon, like a god overcome with his own radiance,--the music of\neternity welled up through the evening silence, and I felt that the sky\nand the earth and the lyrics of the dawn and the dayfall are with the\npoets and idealists, and not with the marketsmen robustly contemptuous\nof all sentiments,--that, after the forgetfulness of his own divinity,\nman will remember again that heaven is always in touch with his world,\nwhich can never be abandoned for good to the hounding wolves of the\nmodern era, scenting human blood and howling to the skies.\n\n\n\n\n                           Transcriber Notes:\n\nOn page 11, \"sacrificesstet\" was replaced with \"sacrifices\".\n\nOn page 20, \"imitaing\" was replaced with \"imitating\", and \"its\nvitality,\" was replaced with \"its vitality.\".","title":"The Spirit of Japan","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":6873}