NA TURE 



639 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 191; 



THE REAL JAPAX. 

 Japan To-day and To-morrow. By H. W. Mabie. 

 Pp. ix-f 291. (New York : The Macmillan Co. ; 

 London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1914.) 

 Price 85. 6d. net. 



THIS book makes little attempt to give the 

 history of Japan or to describe the country 

 or its political or naval and military development. 

 It is, we think, a successful attempt to understand 

 the Japanese tamper, character, spirit, and genius. 

 In material things the Japanese have altered 

 altogether in the last sixty years, but in spiritual 

 things they have altered very little. The traveller 

 describing faithfully what he sees is usually 

 ignorant of the things described in this book, but 

 these are the things which it is most important for 

 the statesmen of other countries- to know. Mr. 

 Mabie is an American, and he is anxious that 

 Americans particularly shall look below the surface 

 of things. He shows that the genius of a people 

 eludes the direct search for it, and he looks for 

 its revelation not in universities and courts, but 

 in shops and fields and homes. 



"It is a people whose government has been 

 religious, whose religion has been governmental, 

 and whose whole organised life has been like a 

 garment woven out of the substance which it 

 clothes, but does not conceal." 



Customs have always had the authority of law. 

 The soul of Japan is in Shintoism, which is no 

 longer a religion ; it is not only a living source 

 of poetry, it is a profound national .sentiment of 

 tremendous energy. Strangers expressed only 

 admiration for Japan forty or fifty years ago. 

 As the Japanese realised that great resources were 

 absolutely necessary for their existence, ' they 

 turned to commerce and manufacture ; then they 

 were said to have become dishonest and their 

 politeness had become insincerity. We have 

 heard the same undiscerning kind of criticism of 

 European people. The Japanese are in essentials 

 just what they used to be. Their ways of think- 

 ing, their ideals, their standards of life, and their 

 interpretations of the mystery of the world are 

 different from ours, simply because for thousands 

 of years they and we have lived unknown to each 

 other. But these differences between us are only 

 superficial, although Mr. Kipling holds another 

 view. 



The man who frequents the smoking-rooms of 

 clubs and hotels cannot see the things described 

 by Mr. Mabie, and ninety-nine per cent, of the 

 business men who live in Japan and think they 

 know all about it are quite ignorant of the intellec- 

 NO. 2363, VOL. 94] 



tual movements, the spiritual stirrings in the souls 

 of those among whom they have their home, but 

 with whom they do not live. The Germans 

 specially have shown contempt for the Japanese; 

 even their highest classes have shown in this way 

 their intellectual limitation. The parrot-cry that 

 the Japanese have no originality — that they are 

 merely imitative — comes from unobservant men. 

 The Japanese have a passion for work; their 

 hands and brains are always on intimate terms. 

 One and all they are artists, and artists always 

 possess freedom and the energy of personality. 

 Jiujitsu, the endeavour to set skill against force 

 and intelligence against mass is emblematic of 

 one great characteristic of these jieople, which is 

 perhaps most visible in their art, "the full weight 

 of thought without any weight of expression.'^ 

 The Japanese will probably solve for Europe many 

 of its seemingly insoluble problems. 



This book is one that ought to be studied not 

 only by people who wish to know something of 

 the real soul of Japan, but also by all people who 

 wish to keep their own souls alive. 



John Perry. 



LAMARCK'S EVOLUTION THEORY. 



Zoological Philosophy : an Exposition with regard 

 to the Xatural History of Animals. By J. B. 

 Lamarck. Translated by H. Elliot. Pp. xcii4- 

 410. (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1914.) 

 Price 155. net. 



MR. ELLIOT has done a valuable piece of 

 work in making a complete translation of 

 Lamarck's "Philosophie Zoologique," which was 

 published in 1809, half a century before Darwin's 

 "Origin of Species," and is undeniably one of the 

 evolution classics. He has enabled students of 

 organic evolution who are unfamiliar with French, 

 or who have been repelled by Lamarck's tedious 

 style, to get a first-hand knowledge of the doc- 

 trines of one of the greatest of Darwin's prede- 

 cessors. Recognising that the main interest of the 

 "Philosophie Zoologique " is historical, Mr. Elliot 

 has given a very literal translation, taking few 

 liberties beyond breaking up some of the very 

 long sentences, and altering words the meaning of 

 which has greatly changed during the past cen- 

 tury. A useful list is given of many of the French 

 terms with the translations adopted. It must be 

 confessed that there are manv pages, esjiecially 

 those dealing with the classification of animals 

 and with physiology, which are of little import- 

 ance, but the value of having a complete transla- 

 tion is obvious. The alternative of making a 

 selection of the salient passages is always a 

 hazardous procedure. It seems to us that Mr. 

 Elliot did wisely in translating the whole, and 



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