New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-03-31
JAPANESE CLARA CTERIS7ICS
A NEW BOOK BY LAFCADIO HEAfN.

OUT OF THE EAST Reveries and studies in New
Japan. BY I:afcadio Hearn, .Author o.@i
"Glimpses OF Unfamiliar Japan PIP I'll
Houghton. Mifllin g. Co
What with Mr. Hearn's Unborn tendencies to
Orienta,ism and his present environment. he
makes queer work of Western science and meta
physics 1t Is a very beautiful and wclI-oriercd
system Of which ne gives glimpsos as foil 10
the speculative Buddhism extracted from his Jap
anese acquantanccs; but it is more like the Or
phic utterances Of his Greek ancestors than the
cautious expression Of modern thought. For cX-
ample many a man Of science holds moro or less
definite views about the origin Of things about
the succession Of worlds, and all other reconcile
subjects. But when he speaks Of these subjects.
he does SO. confessedly tacitly. as a thoorist.
not as a scientist dealing with facts. But Mr..
Hearn 81 kind enough to tell US and his Oriental
friends-it IS news to us as well as TO them
that Western science declares IN SO many words
that the visible universe has been evolved and
dissolved successfully .nnunerab" times during
the infinite past and must also vanish and reap
pear through countless cycles in the infinite fu-
ture" Science has to stand sponsor for great
many strange things at the present day. There
is a French library Of contemporary science in
which crazy book magic and astrolosy and
talismans takes equal rank with Bernards pro-
Alcohol and electric light. But when MI Hearn
makes science responsible for declaration which
involves unheard-of prehistoric investigation and
a prophetic acumen 10 which the gift Of the
Hebrew seers bears NJ comparison, he should
fortify himself with exact references. lie has in
such a case departed from the well-chOsen lines
OF his own literary cndeavo" as an expert In style
and has taken position as an expert on ground
which, not to speak over-emphatcally. he knows
nothing about. Between knowing and believing
there is a chasm OF indefinite width. One may be
eve what he ikee. but he knows only what ne
can prove. 1t IS the essence Of science that il
shall assert only what il can demonstrate Tn"
hypothesis which it may find convenient to use
are held not as declarations Of truth. but as
framework upon which disconnected facts can be
arranged tentatively. If theory is found 10
count for nearly all of them then the inventor
Of it begins to talk if he knew what he had
only believed before. At present there Is just such
a theory. that accounts for nearly all the
facts, about the universe. But there is no the
DRY even shadow Of a theory about what
preceded the universe or about what viii follow
It, for the simple reason that there are no facts
known to humanity these subjects. There IS
speculation on these topics. but It Is substan-
TALLY identical either with the cyc,!cal fances Of
the ancents or with the Lucrctian idea Of the
fortultous cOncourse Of atoms. No man Of Sc.
encc worthy Of the name would venture dec
laratlon on these matters; If ne did. he would
simply forfeit his title as a seeker after knowl-
edge and would be deemed "A guessing enthusiast.
The curious thing is that Mr.. lIearn. who cares
nothing about religion except IN It's speculative
aspects. should thus initiate rcligionists by put
ting faith before knowledge. replacing external
proof by the inward light Of what is possibly
deusive imagination One can easily imagine
that the Buddhist bonsan to whom this sort Of
doctrine presented the latest utteTance
IF modern scientific investigation accepted 1t
quite matter Of course and replied: THE
Shojo indeed teaches that the universe has APP
pcared aid disappeared Over and over again.