The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-31

tic expenditure, profuse in the attention paid to the physically personal forms and forces, prodigal in getting and using whatever can delight the exter- for sense or intoxicate the lower ele- ments of the imagination of man, As a world power Japan feels that she, too, should initiate the material mag niheance of other great nations, Royal palaces in many parts some seldom oc- cupled-courtiy and splendid ceremon- tal large expenditures which do not represent efficiency, these are intima- tions of temptations which beset the new empire and, in lessening degree, Its people. Such temptations the Jap anese cannot avoid. There is no escape. The condition arises from Japan taking place among the world powers; and such a condition initiates nightly against the simple life.
 This condition is reinforced in at least two ways: By the Japanese who go abroad, and they are not a few; and by the foreigners who come to
 Japan as visitors or as residents. The Japanese are gifted in the art of imi-
 tation. (The Chinese call them mon- keys). Travelling in either the United
 States or western Europe, or living for time in New York, London, Berlin
 Paris, Vienna, they return home bear Ing the assurance that their Tokio or
 Yokohama or Kioto cannot be worthy
 of metropolitan rank and prestige un- less these cities, too, adopt the more dominant customs and ceremonials of the governmental, commercial, and so-
 cial capitals of the world.
 The example, too, of liberal or prod
 igal expenditure set by the foreigner coming to Japan moves toward the same conclusion. The American and
 the English-and they seem more num- erous than other nationalities--lay a tremendous stress upon their material
 belongings and comforts. Such an att tention is a revelation to the simple and hardly sandal-footed and lightly clohed folk of the island kingdom.
 But other causes, and opposing, there are which are vigorous in maintaining the general and the pristine simplicity
 of this people. The first of the six
 causes which shall name is industri- orlsness. In Japan everybody works. Japan is a Holland in respect to the commences of labor and the diligence of the laborer. am sure the very dogs would work here, as they do in Hol- land, if there were any dogs. But ani- mals of all sorts are few. Man is the laborer. Labor arises both from neces- sity and habit Originally, of course, 1 the habit arose from the necessity, But now both unite in urging all to work. For Japan has received few of those gifts which nature gives, even to squandering, to the tropics. The Japan | csc people are of the northern zones, l have to work for what they have. In- l dustriousness, be 1t said, tends to keep l life simple. For, industriousness teach | es the cost of things, not in dollars do | I mean, but in that cost which the toll and weariness of body and of brain represent. Industriousness is the enemy | of luxuriousness, extravaganza, prodi- l gality. So long as the Japanese remain ! | and apparently the time when they can | afford not to be is far off-so long will l the tendency toward maintaining the l simple life remain strong.
 1 Tha rtcrle are furthermore, people | of self-res traint, They are free, by na- ture, from vaingloriousness. If their l triumph within a decade over the two l most populous nations has given to q I few a sense Of arrogance, this sense is I neither general nor constant. Their I walk and conversation is one of quiet l ness and humility. They are unwilling | to enter the competitive life of social | rivalries. A distinguished banker re- ] gently built a house. The architect l planned dwelling which he thought l became the wealth and and station oi l hls client But the house proved fal | more elaborate than the owner desir- cd. T do not think I shall live in it. he said to a friend of mine: T want g ! simple house"
 I am also confident that the presence of Buddhism has promoted and vii l still continue to promote simplicity o1 I life. The essence of Buddhism Is, if
 at all understand 1t, the principle oi l cl't mystic, tor put ones self in har.
 nony with the Absolute: the Absolute | is the eternal in time and the infinite l in space. The Absolute is the Budd' hists God. This harmony is intellec' tual- achieved by meditation; it i'
 emotional, oneness of feeling arising from unity of intellectual reflection; i is also volitional--the resultant of botl intellectual and emotional sympathy That Buddhism is thus comprehendet
 by the great body of the people is no
 to be expected; but the presence amont
 the people of such an essential princi