January 15. the past few years the number of those who have taken it upon themselves to lecture Japan on her Legere oes " A Fifuence in the world. The fact proportion to the of her
may be due to suspicions of contradiction between fe. salient ineiples by which the Japanese we been raled in. the past and their present policy; or, as the Japanese appear to think, to ce of the exact nature of principles. Apart from either of these causes, there is a very sincere anxiety among Japan's best friends as to whether she will be able satisfactorily to amalgamate the essence of hor old ing with the tendencies that arise from the process of her westernization. It! is, therefore, the more important to notice that her rulers are no less alive to this cause of anxiety than any outsider can be; and if there is danger of this fact being overlooked at home or abroad, we have 'a striking reminder of it in the nblication of a new magazine, rat number of which appears thi month, called the Yamatoda or " Spirit of Japan." the Military Education Bociety and published under the supervision of the Shiyadan, which is a society, founded in 1906 to inculcate Bushido; its contributors include such well known names as those of Adwiral Count Ito, Admiral Togo, General Viscount Terauchi and General Nogi; and an English translation accompanies each article. The of the magazine is described as being " to lead humanity to trae happiness." Bat over and above the delicate compliment to their British allies conveyed in the English translation, the following extract from the editors' foreword is worth noting: "OF late many people in all parts of the world, in their desire to become painted with Bushido, have ed up books or have come to this country to acquire a first-hand knowledge of it; but the difficulty of fully comprehending... has, we observe with great regret, led them into the error of regarding it as a piece of national arrogance or a policy of aggression. The present Association now propose to issue this monthly periodical with a view to explaining the true nature of Tt may be answered that there is little in Bushido which cannot be traced in the writings of sages of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.