The Lake of Chuwzenji and its neighbourhood is rapidly becoming the premier health-resort_ in the Land of the Rising Sun. In its, placid waters are to be found the virtues which Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, never knew; whilst, Jordan-like, there are life and health and happiness abounding in its perennial springs. Lo this effect ample proof is forthcoming in the increasing number of visitors who wend their annual pilgrimage to its salubrious shores, The excellent Lakeside Hotel is filled with guests; accommodation is at a premium, so that 1t would appear to be the enviable destiny of Lake Chuzenji to outrival the healing waters of Bethesda's sacred pool.
An interesting feature in the district is the frequent change in the atmospheric conditions. The morning breaks in sunshine. The western wind blows sweet and low. White sails of numerous pleasure-boats glide, swan-like on the waters. The wooded hills, uprising from the margin of the Lake, are radiant in their emerald sheen; whilst overhead the binest of canon pies pours down upon the face of nature the benediction of the skies.
But, on a sudden, the cloud that is no bigger than a man's hand is seen. It grows denser and denser.
The sky is overcast. The windows of heaven are opened, and the day that in its dawn was radiant and bright and calm, ends in the bleakness and chaos of the ephemeral storm.
An entertaining friend who is seated at the dinner-table seeks to point a moral, and adorn a tale by a comparison of the passing light and shade and sunshine of the Lake with the hopes and disappointments, the pleasures and vanities of life, which blossom but to die.
"Pleasures are like poppies spread; You seize the flower—its bloom is shed."
We hasten to assure our excellent aequaintance that such has ever been, and will continue to be, the destiny of man, so long as he inhabits this fleeting tenement of clay.
With the philosophic spirit of inquiry, so characteristic of the day in which we live, our friend then proceeds to ask for the source of man's highest happiness and destiny. The primrose path of pleasure; the sterner discipline of the cloister; the intel-Jectual pre-eminence which a classical education alone can bestow, he enumerates in turn, and invites us to answer which of these is destined to be the true panacea for the twentieth century for the happiness and welfare of mankind. Very respectful ly we ventured to remind our friend that it is only he who lives and labours for the benefit of his fellow-creatures who is able to find life's truest pathway through the labyrinth of time to the golden plains which lie beyond, even as it is the royal footstep only which may pass on Nikko's crimson bridge.
Hard by the shores of the lake stands Chuzenji's faithful sentinel, the sacred mountain of Nantaizan. Our worthy friend has lately made the ascent of this celebrated mountain, and waxes eloquent on the scene as viewed from the summit Ho courteously gives us the following interesting information:—" Nantaizan is the most sacred mountain in Japan: it was consecrated, upwards of a thousand years ago, by a learned and famous Buddhist priest named Shodo-shonin, And, so runs the legend, previous to the visit of Shodoshonin, this district was the scene of two violent storms occurring annually, one in the spring and the second in the autumn. At that distant period Nantaizan was known as the Mount of the Two Typheons; but subsequent to the arrival of Shodo-shonin, the storms mysteriously disappeared, and Nantaizan then became known as the Mountain of Sunshine. This district is visited during the month of August by some fifteen thousand pilgrims, who come from three adjoining provinces to worship in the temples situated at the base of the mountain. And these white-robed pilgrims, with their tinkling bells and otdorly behaviour, form quite a pleasing addition, you will admit, to the attractions of the neighbourhood."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.