the matter was discussed, and it was decided to inform the speaker that the students did not care to hear any more such lectures.  The question then arose as to who would deliver the resolution.  There was general hesitancy, and anyone who has seen or known the lecturer, and has heard him speak, can easily understand this feeling; for he is a large man with a most impressive and imperious manner.  The young man, however, who had perhaps been most active in agitating the matter, and who had presented the resolution to the meeting, volunteered to go.  He is slight and rather small, even for a Japanese.  Going to the home of the lecturer, he delivered calmly the resolution of the students.  To the demand as to who had drawn up and presented the resolution to the meeting, the reply was:  “I, sir.”  That ended the conversation, but not the matter.  From that day the idolized teacher was gradually lowered from his pedestal.  But the moral courage of the young man who could say in his enraged presence, “I, sir,” has not been forgotten.  Neither has that of the young man who had acted as interpreter for the first lecture; not only did he decline to act in that capacity any longer, but, taking the first public opportunity, at the chapel service the following day, which proved to be Sunday, he went to the platform and asked forgiveness of God and of men that he had uttered such language as he had been compelled to use in his translating.  Here, too, was moral courage of no mean order.

XIV

FICKLENESS—­STOLIDITY—­STOICISM

A frequent criticism of the Japanese is that they are fickle; that they run from one fad to another, from one idea to another, quickly tiring of each in turn.  They are said to lack persistence in their amusements no less than in the most serious matters of life.

None will deny the element of truth in this charge.  In fact, the Japanese themselves recognize that of late their progress has been by “waves,” and not a few lament it.  A careful study of school attendance will show that it has been subject to alternate waves of popularity and disfavor.  Private schools glorying in their hundreds of pupils have in a short time lost all but a few score.  In 1873 there was a passion for rabbits, certain varieties of which were then for the first time introduced into Japan.  For a few months these brought fabulous prices, and became a subject of the wildest speculation.  In 1874-75 cock-fighting was all the rage.  Foreign waltzing and gigantic funerals were the fashion one year, while wrestling was the fad at another time, even the then prime minister, Count Kuroda, taking the lead.  But the point of our special interest is as to whether fickleness is an essential element of Japanese character, and so dominant that wherever the people may be and whatever their surroundings, they will always be fickle; or whether this trait is due to the conditions of their recent history.  Let us see.