The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-03-03
THE DELlGHT0F HIS SOUL.
Sir Edwin Arnold's Enthusiastic
Opinions of Japanese People.

As for the people, | am, and always
shall be, OF good st. Francis Xaviers
feeling:-"This nation is the delight
Of my soulrn Never have / passed
days more happy. tranquil, or restora-
tive than among Japanese of all
classes, in the cities, towns, and
villages OF Japan. Possibly that is be-
cause | have had no business relations
with my kind and pleasant Niponese
friends. and have eve talked very
much metaphysics; but it seems Ger
tainly an easy way to keep on the
right side of folks, to let philosophy
and theology alone. Moreover,
it is, no doubt. necessary for
such experiences to go a little
behind that sort of Japan
which you find on the HatobGs OF lo-
kohama or Kobe; in the YoShfUdTdS
Of those and the other open ports. At
very little distance from the service,
which we civilizing Westerners have
done our best to spoil, will be still dis
covered the old, changeless, high
tempered, generous, simple and sweet
hammered Japan OF old. l frankly
confess it has entirely charmed Inc;
and therefore what | suy of this Jap
anese nation, and their and
customs, must be received with the
proper caution attaching to the Ian
guage of a friend, and even a lover.
But where else in the world does there
exist such a conspiracy to be agreeablei
such a widespread compact TO rem
der the difficult affairs of life as
smooth and graceful as circumstances
admit; such fair DEGREES OF fine be-
havior fixed and accepted for all; such
universal restraint of the coarser i'm
pulses of speech and act; such pretty
picturesqueness of daily existence;
such livery love of nature as the EN-
bellisher of that existence; such sim
cere delight in beautiful artistic
things; such frank enjoyment OF the
enjoyable; such tenderness to little
children; such reverence for parents
and old persons; such widespread re-
finement of taste and habits; such
courtesy to strangers; such willing
ness to please and to be pleased.
But, if a foreign sojourner must
speak so f~avorably of the men, how
snail he avoid an apparent extrava-
gance of praise in qualifying these
sweet, these patient. these graceful,
these h%igh-bred. these soft-voieed,
gentle, kind, quiet, unselfsh women
of Japan? They SEEM, taken all to-
gether, so amazingly superior to their
men-folk as almost to belong morally
and socially to a higher acs In a
sense that il the case, for though, OF
course, identical in blood and breed
ing, Japanese women have been
reared for centuries in a separate
school from the men. 1t was the hard
school of obedience, of submission, of
resignation, with no ~pretentions 10
Justify the view. The japanese male
has considered himself, all through his
history, the superior OF the graceful
and gentle companion OF his life, who
is taught, from the hour when she
disappoints her mother by arriving in
this world, to humble herself, first to
her parents, next to her husband, and
lastly to her children. But it is char
acteristic of women, in all ages and
countries, to make the best of bad
laws and customs, and even to turn
them to the advantage of themselves
and of the men. Thus l know not by
what soft magic of content, by what
subtle elasticity of nature the Japa-
nese woman-in theory a slave-in
practice has gained very much her
own way everywhere; and obtains,
without exacting, far more CON
sideration and Difference than
might be expected. 1t is
an unsolved mystery in what proper
ton the Mongol, the Malay, and the
South Sea Islander, with perhaps
Arabs and Semitic peoples, have
blended to constitute this unique,
gifted, impressionable race. Yet it is
a still greater mystery to me how the
japanese oma has developed her
gracious sweetness and bright serenity
in the atmosphere of u~Dchivalrous
Inal-estimation surrounding her from
early times. The story of those early
times proves abundantly that she was
always what she is now--OtOndshu
shinsetsu n~0-tender, gentle and de-
voted.-Sfr Ed1Cdn Arnotd in March
ScribneT.