of using them were too evidently genuine to be safely disregarded by those who lay at his mercy. His own Narrative is explicit on this point. Nor shall we, at least, blame him. Perry was a naval officer, and he acted with the vigour of a naval officer, carrying out the orders of his superiors, and at the same time bringing to bear on the situation the tact of a born diplomatist. The event shows that the "gunboat policy," so often decried by amiable but misinformed persons, is really and truly a policy well-suited to certain times and places,—to circumstances in which any other method of action is liable to be interpreted as a sign of weakness. Might is right in many cases. The "gunboat policy" is the only one which is understood by a semi-civilised Oriental power, such as Japan then was and remained for several years after. We therefore give Perry all honour. As for the sentimental gloss which has been laid over his actions, few will probably be found to pay any heed to it.
Books recommended. Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron under Commodore Perry, by Perry and Hawks, Vol. I.—Matthew Calbraith Perry, by Rev W. E. Griffis.
Philosophy. The Japanese have never had a philosophy of their own. Formerly they bowed down before the shrine of Confucius or of Wang Yang Ming.[1] They now bow down before the shrine of Herbert Spencer or of Nietsche. Their philosophers (so-called) have been mere expositors of imported ideas. The names of the principal old-fashioned ones will be found on page 103. In our own day, a new light arose in the person of Fukuzawa Yukichi, the "Sage of Mita," thus called from the district of Tōkyō in which he latterly resided. So wide-spread is the influence exercised by this remarkable man that no account of Japan, however brief, would be complete without some reference to his life and opinions.
Born in 1835 and dying in 1901, Fukuzawa's youth coincided with the period of ferment inaugurated by the first contact with
- ↑ Ō-yō-mei, in the Japanese pronunciation. His chief Japanese expositor was Nakae Tōju (1605-78), commonly known as "the Sage of Ōmi."
