formalism in which it grew up. But we suspect that there was some original sin of weakness as well. Otherwise the clash of India and China with old mythological Japan, of Buddhism with Shintō, of imperialism with feudalism, and of all with Catholicism in the sixteenth century and with Dutch ideas a little later, would have produced more important results. If Japan has given us no music, so also has she given us no immortal verse, neither do her authors atone for lack of substance by any special beauties of form. But Japanese literature has occasional graces, and is full of incidental scientific interest. The intrepid searcher for facts and "curios" will, therefore, be rewarded if he has the courage to devote to it the study of many years. A certain writer has said that "it should be left to a few missionaries to plod their way through the wilderness of the Chinese language to the deserts of Chinese literature." Such a sweeping condemnation is unjust in the case of Chinese. It would be unjust in that of Japanese also, even with all deductions made.
Books recommended. A History of Japanese Literature, by W. G. Aston. The Asiatic Transactions, both English and German, passim, for a variety of translations and summaries including (of works mentioned in the foregoing article) the Kojiki, the Nihongi, portions of the Man-yōshū, the Sumiyoshi Mono-gatari, selections from the Uji Shūi, the Hōjōki, the Tosa Niki, and most of the Norito.—The Monthly Summary of Current Japanese Literature in the "Japan Mail" newspaper.—A Geschichte der Japanischen Literatur, by Prof. K. Florenz, is in process of publication. The largest Japanese library accessible to the public is the Tcikoku Tosho-kwan in Tōkyō. The library of the Imperial University of Tōkyō is also extensive; the collection formed by Max Miiller was added to it in 1901. Both these, however, are eclipsed by the library attached to the Imperial Cabinet, which is said to contain 170,000 Japanese, and 370,000 Chinese volumes, and to include many Chinese works no longer extant in China itself.
Little Spring. Ko-haru, or "the Little Spring," is the Japanese name for the Indian Summer, those beauteous weeks in November and December, when the burden and heat of the year are over, when the sky is constantly blue and the atmosphere golden, and the maple-trees (to borrow a favourite expression of the Japanese poets) put on their damask robes.
Living used to be extremely cheap in Japan. It is so no longer. The general voice of grumblers among the residents
