846 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



harmless assertion is made to stand for 

 relativity as an extreme and destructive 

 theory." 



The character of the volume is thus in- 

 timated by the author: " While the discus- 

 sions now offered touch very closely the 

 points at issue between the empirical and 

 the intuitive tendencies in philosophy, they 

 are not conducted with any express con- 

 formity to either mode of inquiry. There 

 is, in the consideration of these fundament- 

 al questions, a distinct recognition of the 

 fact that the jjhcnomena of mind can not 

 find a rational substratum of thought with- 

 in themselves as phenomena merely, and 

 also a recognition of the fact that it is 

 these very phenomena, and these only, that 

 call for explanation. The effort has been, 

 therefore, to bring appropriate ideas to the 

 interpretation of mental facts, as broadly 

 and fully contained in human experience." 



Japanese Homes and their Scrroundings. 

 By Edward S. Morse. Boston: Tick- 

 nor & Co. Pp. 372, with Plates. Price, 

 $5. 



Professor Morse has achieved a just 

 distinction as an accurate observer in vari- 

 ous fields of natural history, whose precision 

 and facility in relation commend the pub- 

 lished results of his labors alike to the sci- 

 entific constituency and to the general read- 

 ing public. The former class have shown 

 their esteem for him by choosing him to 

 preside at the next meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Association. lie has been for many 

 years Director of the Pcabody Academy of 

 Sciences, at Salem, Massachusetts. He vis- 

 ited Japan in ISTY to study the marine 

 fauna of the coast, and, removing there in 

 1878 with his family, remained nearly two 

 years as Professor of Zoology in the Impe- 

 rial University of Tokio. During this resi- 

 dence he varied his labors with studying 

 the traces of primitive man on the islands 

 and making notes of ethnological and gen- 

 eral interest. He afterward made a third 

 visit to the country for the sole purpose of 

 qualifying himself for the preparation of 

 this and other works upon it. Many books 

 have been written about Japan ; but few of 

 them have been the result of such patient, 

 careful observation as this. For it the au- 

 thor made several explorations from Yezo 



to Satsuma, bringing himself into personal 

 communication with the people of all classes, 

 making thorough examinations of their 

 houses, and keeping a daily illustrated 

 journal of all that he saw and all that hap- 

 pened to him. The illustrations in this 

 volume are yac simile reproductions of the 

 pen-and-ink drawings he then made. Of 

 the usefulness of such work as he has done 

 here, he expresses a view with which all 

 students of anthropology and of history will 

 concur, when he says he feels that it " has 

 not been altogether in vain, as it may result 

 in preserving many details of the Japanese 

 house — some of them trivial, perhaps — 

 which in a few decades of years may be 

 difficult if not impossible to obtain. . . . 

 Nothing can be of greater importance than 

 the study of those nations and peoples who 

 are passing through profound changes and 

 readjustments as a result of their compul- 

 sory contact with the vigorous, selfish, and 

 mercantile nations of the West." The 

 same principle is applicable to all peoples 

 not yet spoiled, and can not be applied too 

 quickly. "If investigators and students 

 would bear in mind the precept of Miyada " 

 — who held it to be a solemn duty to learn 

 any art or accomplishment that might be 

 going out of the world, and then describe it 

 so fully that it might be preserved to pos- 

 terity — " and seize upon those features in 

 social life — forms of etiquette, games, cere- 

 monies, and other manners and customs — 

 which are the first to change in any contact 

 with alien races, a very important work 

 would be accomplished for the future soci- 

 ologist." There is much of a practical 

 bearing to be learned from Japanese archi- 

 tecture and decoration ; we have in fact ac- 

 knowledged it by so readily adopting their 

 styles, or awkwardly trying to imitate them. 

 We may criticise the things we do not like 

 in Japan, or any other country not our own, 

 but we should bear in mind that there may 

 be things among ourselves equally objec- 

 tionable and liable to criticism. But, " in 

 the study of another people one should if 

 possible look through colorless glasses; 

 though, if one is to err in this respect, it 

 were better that his spectacles should be 

 rose-colored than grimed with the smoke of 

 prejudice. The student of ethnology as a 

 matter of policy, if he can put himself in no 



