Hppletons' fll>ontbl£ Bulletin. 



the noise of the horsecar, the unaesthetic 

 telegraph pole and wire, the spectacled po- 

 liceman, and the noisy newspaper boy all 

 show contrast to the chimneyless level of 

 wooden houses in the early '60s. Gone 

 are the tycoons, daimios, spectacular pro- 

 cessions, and the oddities — now seeming 

 antediluvian when they come forth in the 

 commemorative festival, but then appro- 

 priate parts of a great whole. 



" In that wonderful city, then fenced off 

 as to its interior by wooden palings into 

 wards, with guardhouses and appropri- 

 ate rakes and long-poled balls or hooks 

 for keeping unruly sword- wearers at bay, 

 came English-speaking foreigners to live. 

 Among them were two young men fresh 

 from the university, who, takifig rooms in 

 the heart of the daimios' quarter, began the 

 study of Japanese. No English-speaking 

 person at the time could read Japanese 

 books, though some had already made a 

 beginning. Messrs Aston and Satow (the 

 latter now British Minister in Tokio) col- 

 lected native books and manuscripts. En- 

 gaging the best teachers, they commenced 

 that pathway into the unknown region of 

 Japanese literature in which many others 

 have since followed, though none has gone 

 far ahead of the pioneers. It is true, how- 

 ever, that Prof. B. H. Chamberlain may 

 worthily be added to make a trio. Satow 

 •excelled as a historian ; Chamberlain is a 

 master in Japanese belles-lettres ; but As- 

 ton is probably first in insight into the lan- 

 guage and its history, and in being able, by 

 profound knowledge and easy familiarity 

 and cool and clear judgment, to show the 

 whole course of Japanese thought and liter- 

 ary expression. He is not only the author 

 of grammars of the written and spoken 

 languages, but the translator of the older 

 and probably the more valuable of the two 

 books which lie at the foundation of Japa- 

 nese history and literature— the ' Nihongi ' 

 or 'Chronicles of Japan,' from the earliest 

 times to A. D. 1697. There may possibly 

 be those who can write more entertainingly 

 upon the literature of Japan ; it is quite 

 certain that none can appraise it with a 

 more truly judicial mind than Mr. Aston. 



" Let us look at the life of this scholar 

 and man of letters. He is the kind of man 

 whom the United States will need in great 

 numbers during the next few generations, 

 for with our Pacific and Asiatic possessions 

 we shall be in want of language-tamers. 

 Mr. Aston was born in 184.1, near London- 

 derry, and educated at Queens College, 

 Belfast, between 1859 and 1863. One of 

 his professors was the late Dr. James Mr- 

 Cosh, so well known among us as president 

 of Princeton University. He was appointed 

 student-interpreter in Japan in 1864. After 

 his preliminary work in Tokio he went to 

 Nagasaki as interpreter to the British con- 

 sulate. He brought out his first sketch of 

 Japanese grammar in 1868. Returning to 



his native country he was so fortunate as 

 J to marry a wife who has been his devoted 

 helper and guardian during a decade or 

 more of invalidism. While at home he 

 issued his 'Grammar of the Japanese 

 Written Language,' with a chrestomaihy. 



" Returning to Japan he was successively 

 acting consul at Kobe, consul at Nagasaki, 

 and then consul-general for Korea. The 

 latter appointment delighted all those in- 

 terested in the (once) Hermit Kingdom, for, 

 knowing Mr. Aston's historical, literary, and 

 linguistic tastes and powers, they expected 

 something of value from him that would 

 throw light upon Japanese origins and 

 claims. Nor were they disappointed. Mr. 

 Aston soon mastered Korean, and showed 

 how closely the Koreans and Japanese were 

 associated in mind and history. In the 

 awful riot of 1S84 — one of the almost in- 

 evitable accompaniments of sudden change 

 from the ancient to the modern regime — Mr. 

 Aston took cold from night exposure, and 

 from this time his health was shattered. 



" He was made secretary of the British 

 legation in Tokio, but was retired on a 

 pension, and returning home lived for 

 several years at Seton, in Devonshire, 

 where, through the care of his devoted wife, 

 though ' dying by inches ' — as one of his old 

 friends told me — he has been able to trans- 

 late and publish the 'Nihongi,' a work of 

 prodigious scholarship and of vast value to 

 the student of Japanese origin. Queens 

 University in Ireland gave him the degree 

 of A. M. in 1863, and subsequently the title 

 of Doctor of Literature, honoris causa, 



* 



* * 



Messrs. D. Appleton and Company 

 wish to call special attention to the new 

 editions of Mr. F. M. Chapman's Bird- 

 Life which are now ready. This success- 

 ful book is presented in an octavo edi- 

 tion with colored plates, a library edi- 

 tion with black and white plates, a 

 teachers' edition, and a teachers' manual 

 containing the regular text, and intend- 

 ed to accompany portfolios of colored 

 plates. 



* * 



It is proper at this time to empha- 

 size the excellent volume upon Spain 

 which Mr. Frederick A. Ober has pre- 

 pared for Appletons' History for Young 

 Readers Series. The leading events of 

 Spain's history, with special reference to 

 her American colonies, the rise and fall 

 of the empire, the causes and effe< ts of 

 the loss of her colonial power from the 

 earliest period to the close of the late 



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