tion and principles of historical criticism are known and accepted; but a great sifting of the existing heterogeneous material must be done before history, as we understand it, can be written. Nobody has yet made any serious attempt to distinguish the true from the false in the old Japanese annals, though it is pretty generally acknowledged that this process is indispensable. Philosophical history is still in its infancy. The numerous historical works which have appeared during the last twenty years are chiefly uncritical epitomes of Japanese, Corean, Chinese, and European history, and simple mémoires pour servir. Shimada Saburo's Kaikoku Shimatsu (1888) is one of the most important of the latter class. It is a collection of material bearing on the opening of Japan to foreign trade in 1859.
The Shōrai no Nihon ("Japan of the Future"), by Tokutomi Iichiro, is an attempt to forecast the future of Japan by an examination of its past history. Mr. W. Dening describes it as "more philosophical in conception than most preceding publications of its class, and surpassed by none of them in point of style. This work, in the space of two years, ran through five editions, and competent Japanese critics pronounce it to be one of the most remarkable books of the age. The writer is a Christian."
Among other works of a serious kind may be mentioned Marquis Ito's Commentary on the Constitution, and a treatise by Ono Adzusa on the same subject. Mr. Dening gives high praise to Nose Yei's Kyōikugaku, a work on education. The author's aim is to adapt Western principles and ideas to the local requirements of Japan, and in this he has, according to Mr. Dening, achieved a high degree of success.
