RETROSPECT AND FORECAST 207 



she acquired, in the different seats of civilisation in 

 Europe and on the continent of America, the knowledge 

 of the attainments of each in every department of 

 progress, and by adopting whatever she perceived to 

 be the best in every country. Had the native 

 civilisation of the Japanese not been such as to 

 elevate their intellectuality to a high pitch, the rulers 

 of Japan could never have contemplated so great an 

 innovation, nor, if they had, would the nation have 

 submitted to a departure from old ways, manners, and 

 customs so radical and far-reaching. In her develop- 

 ment upon the lines of Western progress she has 

 exhibited a power of organisation and scientific 

 thoroughness that has enabled her to rival, if not 

 surpass, her teachers. Her people were both in- 

 tellectually and morally prepared to add to their old 

 civilisation all the material resources developed by 

 modern science and approved by experience, existing 

 in the civilisation of the alien peoples of the West. 

 In the moral and intellectual elevation achieved for 

 them by their native civilisation lay the secret of 

 their so rapidly acquiring and assimilating the results 

 of our Western civilisation and adapting them to 

 their own social order and national ideas. 



In the war with Kussia, Europe beheld with 

 admiration the patriotic self-devotion and irresistible 

 bravery of the troops of Japan, and at the same time 

 the innate humanity, courtesy, and gentleness of her 

 people, with the wisdom, purposefulness, and moderation 

 of her statesmen. 



