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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Fig. 1. Manner of Large Writing. 



Writing is also a part of the divine service of Buddha. The 

 empresses and emperors in the olden days made copies of the Sacred 

 Books; the characters were golden on a white field, the style of the 

 letters was dignified and beautiful. There is even a special god of 

 writing, Ten Jin. He was a great statesman, poet and scholar of the 

 olden time, and also a fine writer; he was afterwards deified. Now 

 the children offer up to Ten Jin their early attempts at writing and 

 pray to him for help in the difficult task which has been set before 

 them. The sacredness of the art of writing attaches even to pieces of 

 paper with written characters on them; the Japanese do not allow 

 them to be trampled into oblivion, but carefully pick them up and 

 religiously burn them. 



What is our American view of writing? We consider illegible and 

 careless writing a thing to boast of. You have all read Mark Twain's 

 story of the letter from Horace Greeley, and I need not repeat it to 



