* * *

One might have imagined that Japan's new religionists would
have experienced some difficulty in persuading foreign nations
of the truth of their dogmas. Things have fallen out
otherwise. Europe and America evince a singular taste for
the marvellous, and find a zest in self-depreciation. Our
eighteenth-century ancestors imagined all perfections to be
realised in China, thanks to the glowing descriptions then
given of that country by the Jesuits. Twentieth-century
Europe finds its moral and political Eldorado in distant
Japan, a land of fabulous antiquity and incredible virtues.
There is no lack of pleasant-mannered persons ready to guide
trustful admirers in the right path. Official and semi-
official Japanese, whether ambassadors and ministers-resident
or peripatetic counts and barons, make it their business to
spread a legend so pleasing to the national vanity, so useful
as a diplomatic engine. Lectures are delivered, books are
written in English, important periodicals are bought up,
minute care is lavished on the concealment, the patching-up,
and glossing-over of the deep gulf that nevertheless is fixed
between East and West. The foreigner cannot refuse the bolus
thus artfully forced down his throat. He is not suspicious
by nature. How should he imagine that people who make such
positive statements about their own country are merely
exploiting his credulity? HE has reached a stage of culture
where such mythopoeia has become impossible. On the other
hand, to control information by consulting original sources
lies beyond his capacity.