n 4 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



the lectures perfectly, and, moreover, showed their 

 talent in manipulation. Indeed, as students, they 

 exhibited a capacity for mastering the details of a 

 subject certainly not inferior to that of the best of our 

 own countrymen. One of them, Suguira by name (his 

 portrait faces this page), carried off the first prize in 

 my junior lecture class, consisting of from 1 50 to 200 

 students. He had come to stay at the college for three 

 years. At the end of the second session Suguira was 

 placed second on the list of the senior class at the 

 sessional examination, the first being an Englishman. 

 Some little time afterwards I learnt that he was leaving, 

 when I sent for him, and said that I understood that he 

 was to stay with us for three years. " Had he," I asked, 

 " been sent for ; if not, what other reason had he for 

 leaving ?" " No," he said, " I am leaving at my own 

 desire." And after much pressing I found that he con- 

 sidered himself disgraced by not having taken the first 

 place in the senior class, and that he could not stand 

 being confronted with his fellow-students. 



Since that time I have had several letters from 

 my Japanese friends and pupils, some of which are 



interesting. 



TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, ASAKUSA, 



TOKIO, JAPAN. 

 MY DEAR SIR, 



I fear I can but blame myself if you have thought hardly 

 of me for never having written to you since my return to 

 Japan. But do not, Sir, imagine that I have let the memory 

 of those happy days at Owens College be effaced, or even 

 in the slightest degree dimmed by time. Your teaching and 

 your noble example to all students of science are ever before 

 my eyes with all the freshness of the College days. Believe 

 me, here in Japan, there is at least one heart that watches 

 your career with intense interest and feels himself honoured 

 by the honours conferred on you. . . . Prizing as I do the 

 high distinction of having been your pupil, I determined to 

 deserve it by performing some serious and earnest scientific 



