1890-91.] TWENTY-THIRD MEETING. 39 



simple, every-day subjects, the female is used for poetry, and kangi, or 

 Chinese, for the expression of high-flown and magniloquent ideas. In 

 books of poetry mostly the female manner of expression is found. 

 Among the common people the male and female are both understood 

 and in use. In the newspapers, however, all three forms were combined, 

 so also in novels and in general literature other than poetry. The 

 development of Japanese literature was stated to have begun in poetry, 

 under the influence of woman, and the force was still felt very powerfully, 

 especially at the Court of the Mikado. The next period in the history 

 •of the literature was that dominated by the Buddhist priests, when 

 history flourished to a remarkable extent, such popular treatises as " The 

 History of the Middle Kingdom " in 125 volumes, being still read by the 

 Japanese school boys. Tiie third stage in the development of Japanese 

 literature was that of the Samurai or Knights, and is characterized by 

 Confucianism in philosophy, and a lighter style of prose. It was the 

 most brilliant period of Japanese literature, and lasted about 200 years- 

 Its decay was followed by the introduction of European learning, which 

 has been so eagerly received by the Japanese, who have translated from 

 English, French and German, and are now beginning to be recognized in 

 the universities of the Continent as the possessors of a literature worthy 

 of being studied for its own sake. 



TWENTY-THIRD MEETING. 



Twenty-third Meeting, i8th April, 1891, Dr. Kennedy in the chair. 



Donations and Exchanges, 64. 



Thomas Hodgins, M.A., Q.C., was elected a member. 



Rev. Prof G. M. Wrong read a paper on " The Study of History." 

 The student of history is something of a prophet — a prophet looking 

 backwards, as Schlegel said. To know history is to know not only facts 

 but the deep significance of facts. The historian has nothing to do with 

 praising or blaming ; his work is to paint men as they were. Macaulay 

 took Thucydides as his model of a historian. But there is a writer that 

 rivals Thucydides— the writer of the book of Genesis. He gives a vivid 

 moving picture of the people he depicts, of their virtues and vices, and 

 writes scarcely a word of praise or blame. A variety of endowments is 

 necessary to study history well, and scarcely anyone possesses them all. 

 There are moral endowments. Sympathy — to enable us to stand with 

 the men of the past and see as they saw; unselfishness, that we may 



