96 Lafcadio Hearn's Books [1904 



long procession of Spanish Grandees and Officers, the child fast 

 asleep. We of the Diplomatic Corps had to stand just opposite the 

 throne and watch the besa-manos for an hour or more together, thus 

 it is all photographed upon my memory. 



" 16th April. — We are at the Palazzo della Cisterna, which has 

 been thoroughly furbished up since I was here three or four years 

 ago, but it is still a somewhat gloomy house, as few of the windows 

 look out on open spaces, and many are filled with opaque or coloured 

 glass. We have been given, however, a cheerful apartment of half- 

 a-dozen small rooms looking out on some chestnut trees in their 

 first leafage filling the square acre plot which is the Palace Garden. 

 Here blackbirds are singing gaily, though the day has turned to rain. 

 We were handed over on arrival by the porter, a splendid apparition 

 in scarlet, to the Marquese de Torregiani and his wife, Lord and 

 Lady in waiting. He a Florentine brought up as I was by the Jesuits 

 at Stonyhurst, she an American who has never been in America. 

 These have made us very comfortable. The Princess is looking her 

 best with her two boys, Amadeo and Aymon, charming children, with 

 pretty manners, and talking already three languages, Italian, English, 

 and German. French they have not been taught as thev are expected 

 to pick it up naturally later from their parents who talk it en intimite. 

 The Duke was not at luncheon as he is still crippled by a broken leg, 

 but he was wheeled in afterwards. In appearance he is altered greatly 

 for the better, as he no longer affects the coiffure of the Emperor Wil- 

 liam, and he made himself verv agreeable talking of horses and travels, 

 and the Japanese War, as to which I was glad to find we were agreed. 



" Another naval smash has befallen the Russians. Admiral Macaroff 

 blown up in his Flagship the Petropaulowski. 



" I have been reading Lafcadio Hearn's books lately which have 

 increased my interest in the Japanese. His explanation of Buddhism 

 is I suppose as lucid as is possible, though it passes European wit 

 to understand it entirely. He makes out the case well between Buddh- 

 ism and the monotheistic religions, but not I think as between Buddhism 

 and materialism, the latter occupying far sounder metaphysical grounds. 

 The weakness of Buddhism lies in this, that while accepting the eternity 

 of matter it insists also on the eternity of mind. This may or may not 

 be the truth, but it is a mere theory resting on no evidence or proba- 

 bility. The Buddhist doctrine of the composite nature of the soul 

 is just as much a fancy as the Christian one of the soul's simplicity. 

 Both exaggerate the importance of mental phenomena, which as far as 

 our experience goes are confined to an infinitesimally small fraction 

 of the material universe, and only seem of importance to us. because 

 in ourselves they so strongly predominate. The idea of a soul as 

 something possible, apart from an organized body, is a superstition 



