Sth Sune, In the inimitably beautiful my-theology of Ancient Greece Nemesis is represented asa femininedivinity who impersonates the righteous anger of, the gods, One legend makes her the daughter of Night, another, the child of Oceanus. In divers places and at different times temples and statues were erected to her honour, quite sufficient proof, if pro-f were needed, that long before the dawn of the Christian era, the fundamental and eternal principles of justice were as firmly fixed in the hearts of men us ever they are to-day. Ages before the Greek classics were written there must have become ingrained in human nature the belief that somehow and somewhere the spoiler should be despoiled, and the wiong-doer called to account.
Avd since, whatever the colour of the skin, "God hath made of one blood all nations of men fur to dwell on all the face of the earth," we need not be surprised to find precisely the same belief amongst the Mongolian race as amongst the Caucasian. It is so.
"Ah, my son! I put befure thee Wisdom taught by men of yore: Hear my counsels and obey them Less there may be to deplore! Heaven is sending grievous trouble, Threatening ruin to the land, Think of cases not far distant, And of Heaven's unerring hand: Sorely shalt thou vex thy people Virtue if thou so withstand," hose are lines from poem by Chinese ruler who lived as fir back as B. C. 750, and yet speaks of the "wisdom taught by men of yore." Centuries of such teaching have made the Chinese prone 10 see the finger of Heaven in all important matters of life, and in this
ciples and imitators, Nothing is respect the Japanese are their dis-more natural, then, than that they should see in the events of the past few months evidences of the anger of the gods with their Russivn tormentors, anger which, as they believe, is as yet not nearly assuaged, For the retribution has only begun, Nemesis does nothing by halves. She fits the punishment to the crime.
Ifthere wee many Japanese or Chinese, students of the Greek classics which is hardly likely, some of them would at this juncture doubtless join with the men of Rhamnus in declaring that the retributive div ity must indubitably be the offspring of Oceanus, and not the daughter of Night. Was it not by means of Old Father Ocean thas they gained their first advantage, and is he not even now aiding and abetting them in ways which he only can command? He bears ther fighting sous away on his ample bosom, he carries them whithersoever they will, and in addition to all this he acts towards them as an impassable barrier which their enemy has no means of crossing. Mahan taught men something of the immense importance of having Father Ocean on one's side, the Japanese are driving the lesson home. They may be excussd for whatever tendency they have to the Rhamnian theory of the descent: of Nemesis.
We need not necessarily either follow or oppose them in this belief. But to him who reads between the lines there is much evidence to show that Hesiod was not far wrong, ant that' whatever share Oceanus have had in the paternity of wir-fateful one, it is certain thas Nighs had her share. For what is Night. but the symbol of Darkness, and what is Darkness itself but. a synonym for Ignorance? We come here to the very innermost cause of the Russian defeats. It was well said, thirty years ago, that the Franco-German war was won by the Prussian schoolmaster. Itis the Japanese schoolmaster who is winning the campaign in Manchuria. It is he who has taught his countrymen to tarn junks into battleships and coasters into cruisers. His is the intelligence which has devised the plan of campaign, made the guns, trained the men, organised the transport, made sure of the honesty, and inculeaed tim. From the high-the lowest his coun-acting as a unit
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.