cjepiemoer ii, lyit). 
L A rj U AN 13 W A T £ R 
BOOKS OF THE WEEK. 
A LITERARY REVIEW. 
" A 'History of the Japanese People, from the Earliest Times." By 
Capt. F. Brinkley, R.A., with the Collaboration of Baron Kikuchi. 
Illustrated. Encyclopsdia Britannica Co. lis. 
Years ago Lafcadio Hearn threw the glamour of an 
exquisite style upon the social life of the Japanese, and Pro- 
fessor Chamberlain and others have done important spade- 
work in the field of research; But Captain Briukley has 
done more than any other Englishman to instruct us in the 
history of our Far Eastern Ally. Such work as he has pro- 
duced in the ten volumes of his "Japan and China" and 
in the eight hundred packed pages of the history before us 
could not, indeed, have been accomplished if other labourers- 
had not preceded him. But those other labourers were, for 
the most part, Japanese; and Captain Brinkley, with some 
assistance from Baron Kikuchi, has gathered the fruits of 
resestWhcs pursued by Japanese scholars during the last 
thirty years. The result is a complete scientific history of 
Japan' from pre-historic times down to the end of the Russo- 
Japanese War. ■ ■' 
■''Covering so vast a subject' in comparatively small com- ■ 
pass. Captain Brinkley ob'vioUsly had to choose between a 
redird of bare facts and conclusions and a generalised sketcli 
like Lord Bryce's " Holy Roman Empire." He rightly 
choSe the former method. Though his brief discussions of 
Jap'ane.se literature' and thought show us, as his other books 
liaveshow^n, that he can use the' broader and more illuminat- ' 
ing iiielhod when he thinks fit, he is here concerned with the 
first' essential — the facts. Discussion, generalisation, orm- ' 
me'i'ft riay follow later. The present work is marked- by 
compression and literary severity. '■' 
■■Less thali' a generation &'go't;he world Was astonished at 
the sudden emergence of Japan into the position of 'a great 
firfel-ftlass 'Power — and not merely 'a great military, but-'als« 
a great' civilised Power. ' Many persons felt that there was 
soiW^tbing almost Tincanby, even ill-omened, in the arming' 
of a far-Eastern nation with all the Weapons of the West; 
they 'suspected some de^p dtipHcity'of the Orient niasquerad-' 
ing under the guise of civilisation, and equipped only with 
its more deadly mechanism. As we read Captain Brinkley's 
history the surprise at the rise of Japan disappears, and gives 
place to a different kind of surprise^ — namely, that this 
nation had not dawned upon us in all her strength at least 
two hundred years ago. .It is scarcely .too much to say that 
ifsLpaii has been the Britain of the Far East for the last two 
thousand years. Two thousand years, ago, indeed, she was 
already a self-developed nation, when we were still unheard 
of. As we were influenced by Roman Christendom, so she 
was influenced by Chinese Buddhism, but less drastically. 
Just as we had a Protestant Reformation, so she also ex- 
jierienced a revival of Shintoism, which modified Buddhism. 
As our society, our institutions, even our religion, have 
their roots in Anglo-Saxon England, so Japan can trace h-^r 
national character to pre-Chinesc influences. 
Evidently we cannot begin to understand the Japanese 
until we realise that, deeply as they have been influenced 
by Chinese religion, philosopliy, and art, they are a race 
wholly different from their great neighbours. The early 
legends and mythology of the Japanese, with their animism, 
their delight in vivid personal deities, contrast with the 
enrooted mysticism of the Chinese. The ancient religion of 
tlie Japanese was A'a/nt-worship, and the Kainis seem to 
ha-ve held a position analogous to that of the gods and demi- 
gods of the Greeks. The first objects of national worship 
were a supr-inie being, the Goddess of the Sun, and two 
producing deities, Izanagi and Izanami, who, as a Japanese 
writer says, " created this country " and divinely appointed 
the Mikado to rule over it. 
Thus for many centuries after the Emperor Jimmu, who 
is atjiributed to the .seventh century b.c, it seems that the 
soyei-eign held, actually as well as nominally, the siipreme 
position in the StVte, and that divine authority was on his 
side. In the first thousand years of so-called prehistoric 
Japan the nation was becoming consolidated and acquiring 
military prestige abroad. Towards the end of this time two 
influences are to be noied— first, the growth of the great aris- 
tocratic families, and, second, the influence of Chinese ideas, 
which in the sixth century a.d. led to th-, official' recognition 
of Buddhism. Captain Brinltley 'points out that Buddhism 
weakened the Crown: " That the Buddha directed and'cori- 
troijed. man's destiny, was a d.octr.ine incoi^sistent witli the 
traditional faith in the divine authority o'f the 'Son of 
Heaven.' " From this time pnVards the, power of the aristo- 
cratic families steadily increased, while that of the Mikado 
diminished, and was to all intents and purposes superseded 
by that of the Shof/un, or chief general. Japan became a 
feudal nation, and its political history is the story of constant 
strife between the grieat nobles, diversified by the occa- 
sional supremacy of a great Shogun, or by a patriotic war 
against Korea or Mongol invaders. Martial prowess was the 
national ideal, and the virtues of the model knight — courage, 
loyalty, discipline, self-possession — the virtues of Bvs/iido — 
fell short only in the qualities of pity and gentleness from the 
Christian conception of chivalry. The young were instructed 
- in " literature and arms," which together fostered 
" decorum " and hardihood. 
It must not be supposed that the Japanese policy of 
excluding foreigners from the seventeenth century to the 
middle of the nineteenth was the result of narrow-mindedness. 
At first the Portuguese were welcomed, and the Jesuits made 
many thousands of converts. The great Shogun, leyasu, 
sent envoys to Europe, who reported that Christian countries 
were plunged in barbarous religious wars and profound . 
fanaticism. For us there is irony in the reflection that, whilst 
freedpm of cp.nscience had always been tolerated in Japan, 
the fanaticism of Christianity was intolerable to her princely 
rulers. Foi-eigners, therefore, were excluded uiitil it was dis- 
covered that they were masters of a necessary instrument — an 
instrument which a great military nation could not do with- ■ 
out — guns and armaments. It was the argument of the big 
gun which persuaded the Japanese to give up their feudalism, 
their isolation, their knights in armour. They had the men, 
the orgaiiLsation, and the patriotism; they needed only 
science, engineeKs, and guns to become a first-class modern 
Power. It is this kind of equipment alone which, in the eyes 
of the civilised w.orld^ entitles a nation to qualify as " first- 
class." China has not yet learnt the lesson. 
" Salute to Adventurers." By John Buchan. Kelson. Gs. 
'Mr. Buchan has recently acquired a new distinction by 
his thrilling, not to say romantic, history of the war. We 
pointed out that he wrote of the war in a style reminiscent ' 
of that which he uses in his historical novels. Hers we have 
another example of his adventures in fiction. " I am con- 
cerned with doings, not thoughts," says the hero, who tells 
his own story. Assuredly he keeps the ball rolling. From 
the first moment of his introduction, when he is taking what 
should have been an ordinary walk into Edinburgh, to the 
time when he engages with lawless Colonials in mortal com- 
bat with treacherous foes in Virginia (about two hundred 
years ago), he is plunged in thrilling and dangerous affairs, 
from which, with much braggadocio, much courage, much 
heroism, he emerges safe, happy, and in love. Mr. Buchan 
has moulded his style upon Stevenson. We can catch the 
very phrases of David Balfour. We can see the strut of Alan 
Breck. The mannerism, needless to say, is sheer artifice, 
but with such skill in keeping up a tale of breathless adven- 
ture and excitement Mr. Buchan can banish irritation an! 
set our minds' on dauntless heroes, fierce American Indians, 
and fair ladies. That is an art not to be despised. 
" Serbia : Her People, History, and Aspirations." By Woislav M. 
Petrovitch. Harrap. 3s. 6d. net. 
Mr. Petrovitch, an attache to the Serbian Legation in 
London, is a student profoundly veised in the history, liter-a- 
ture, and folklore of his own country, who also has the gift 
of writing in a strong and idiomatic English style. Not long 
ago he produced a fascinating volume of " Hero Tales and 
Legends of the Serbians," and has promised a similar volume 
of Serbian ballad poetry. In the meantime h» has been at 
work upon this study of the history and political ideals of 
liis country, which pre.-^ent<-i in brief compas.* and in an attrac- 
tive narrative ju.^t those facts about Serbia which thousands 
of English people to-day must l-e anxious to learn. He tells 
in graphic chapters of the early Empire of the Serbians, jf 
their suhjecti-r,h to the Turkish yoke, the struggle for inde- 
pendence under the first Karageorge, the rise of the Obreno- 
vitch disaster, and tlie return of the present prosperous 
regime: ' He explains the origin of the first Balkan war and 
• the incidents which led to the second deplorable war between 
Burgaria and Tier Alli<^B. He concludes with an attraoti-.'e 
account of the' n-itional custom.-, of this most engaging and 
virile people. His book throughout is singularly free from 
■ tliat fierce partisanship which is a ohai-aclcristic of so many 
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