"If Thought and Love, desert us, from that day
Let us break off all commerce with the Muse:
With Thought and Love companions of our way—
Whate'er the senses take or may refuse,—
The Mind's internal heaven shall shed her dews
Of inspiration on the humblest lay."
In fact, most metaphors and allegories are incapable of so much as intelligible explanation to Far-Eastern minds.
Japanese—with its peculiar grammar, its still uncertain affinities, its ancient literature—is a language worthy of more attention than it has yet received. We say "language;" but "languages" would be more strictly correct, the modern colloquial speech having diverged from the old classical tongue almost to the same extent as Italian has diverged from Latin. The Japanese still employ in their books, and even in correspondence and advertisements, a style which is partly classical and partly artificial. This is what is termed the "Written Language." The student therefore finds himself confronted with a double task. Add to this the necessity of committing to memory two syllabaries, one of which has many variant forms, and at least two or three thousand Chinese ideographs in forms standard and cursive, ideographs, too, most of which are susceptible of three or four different readings according to circumstances, add further that all these kinds of written symbols are apt to be encountered pell-mell on the same page, and the task of mastering Japanese becomes almost Herculean. Fortunately the pronunciation is easy, and there is no difficulty in acquiring a smattering that will greatly enhance the pleasure and comfort of those who reside or travel in the country. Another grain of comfort, in the midst of all Japanese linguistic complications, may be extracted from the fact that local dialects have but little importance. It is not as in China, where, if you speak Pekingese you are incomprehensible at Canton, and if you speak Cantonese you are incomprehensible at Amoy or at Shanghai. Here the one standard language will carry you right through the country. No doubt the peasantry of different districts have local modes of pronunciation and expression; but the trouble thus
