38 
grave injustices of Russian life as Dickens did for England— 
Dickens, whose anniversary they celebrated that very evening. 
(Hear, hear). Another instance was the Japanese. When he was in 
America a year and a half ago he surprised a number of American 
experts by asking the question—which was the most civilised 
nation ? and by saying (six months before the war broke out) 
that it was the Japanese, because one saw since their revolution 
fifty years ago, and their marvellous workmanship which came 
to this country, the condition of that workmanship which he still 
maintained was unparalleled in modern life. He knew nothing to 
touch it, and it was a revelation of the Japanese character—skill, 
inherited skill, and a desire to produce perfection through patience 
and training. In the Exhibition of 1900 were shown chavracter- 
istic examples of Japanese workmanship in all its branches— 
metal, laquer work, printed books, and above all a number of 
Buddhas little larger than life-size, brought by command of the 
Emperor from the temples, and these dated from the 6th, 7th, 
8th, up to the 15th century. For exquisite workmanship, for the 
expression of the Buddhistic idea of patience and desire to be rid 
of the warriors of tke country and to fall back into the internal, 
he had never seen equalled in any other workmanship. Whether 
one looked at the Russian literature, or at the marvellous tech- 
nical workmanship and the individual handicraft of the Japanese, 
one felt that they could read the history of the very nation in 
their work as one could not read it in any other way. As Ruskin 
had pointed out—they could not lie in their work. If it was a 
bad potato hash, they knew it to be a bad cook; it did not taste 
nice, and moreover, they got indigestion. lf it was good work 
they could enjoy it, and the juices went right. It was the 
same in everything else. ‘The quality and the skill of the work 
could not be disguised. The quality and the skill of their words 
might be. In words they could do all kinds of deceitful things. 
They could deceive in their literature, but not in the actual 
workmanship of the hand, because the individual was impressed 
in it; and so they could see what the workman was by his 
product. (Cheers). 
On the motion of Mr. Wm. Thompson, seconded by Mr. T. Bell, 
and supported by Mr. T. Preston, a hearty vote of thanks was 
accorded to the Lecturer. 
SEP 
