Japanese who, despite official interdict, retained a thirst for foreign learning, naturally sought the company of such kindred spirits, and the results to japan, though at first meagre, were valuable and permanent. The elements of mathematics, geography, botany, and other sciences and of the all-important art of medicine were obtained from this source. So were various European products,—glass, velvet, woollen fabrics, clocks, telescopes, etc.,—and it is to be presumed, European business methods, at least in outline. Even scraps of literature filtered through, for instance Esop's "Fables," which were translated as early as (about) 1670. Precise details are difficult to obtain, because of the censorship which rigorously, though not quite successfully, repressed Dutch studies except in one closely watched bureau of the administration at Yedo. But we know enough to be able to say positively that during the two centuries from 1650 to 1850, the little Dutch settlement at Nagasaki was constantly looked to by eager minds as a fountain of intellectual light.
At last, but not quite suddenly even then,—for Commodore Perry's famous expedition was preceded by others on a smaller scale, both Russian and English,—a fresh impetus was given to the Europeanisation of the country by its partial opening to foreign trade and residence in 1859, and its complete opening in 1899. This last, or Anglo-Saxon act of the drama—for in it Anglo-Saxon influence has predominated—is still being played out before our eyes. Once more the great art of war has suffered a sea-change, and in every branch of intellectual and social activity the pulse of a reinvigorated life runs quick. Foreigners have often stood in amaze at Japan's ability to swallow so many new ideas and institutions whole. They have dubbed her superficial, and questioned the permanence of her conversion to European methods. This is because they fail to realise two things,—the innate strength of the Japanese character, and the continuous process of schooling which has enabled this particular race to face the new light without being blinded.
