wholly reconstructed her navy according to the English system.  But in the matter of naval education our rulers found the English system altogether unsatisfactory, and adopted the American system for the model of our naval academy.  So, in discipline, our naval officers found the German principle much superior to the English, and adopted that in point of discipline.  Thus the Japanese navy is not wholly after the English system, or the American, or the French, or the German system.  But it has been so constructed as to include the best portions of all the different systems.  In the case of the army, we had a system of our own before we began to utilize gunpowder and foreign methods of discipline.  Shortly before the present era we reorganized our army by adopting the Dutch system, then the English, then the French, and after the Franco-Prussian war, made an improvement by adopting the German system.  But on every occasion of reorganization we retained the most advantageous parts of the old systems and harmonized them with the new one.  The result has been the creation of an entirely new system, different from any of those models we have adopted.  So in the case of our civil code, we consulted most carefully the laws of many civilized nations, and gathered the cream of all the different codes before we formulated our own suited to the customs of our people.  In the revision of our monetary system, our government appointed a number of prominent economists to investigate the characteristics of foreign systems, as to their merits and faults, and also the different circumstances under which various systems present their strength and weakness.  The investigation lasted more than two years, which finally culminated in our adoption of the gold in the place of the old silver standard.”

This quotation gives an idea of the selective method that has been followed.  There has been no slavish or unconscious imitation.  On the contrary, there has been a constant conscious effort to follow the best model that the civilized world afforded.  Of course, it may be doubted whether in fact they have always chosen the best; but that is a different matter.  The Japanese think they have; and what foreigner can say that, under the circumstances and in view of the conditions of the people, they have not?  One point is clear, that on the whole the nation has made great progress in recent decades, and that the conduct of the government cannot fail to command the admiration of every impartial student of Oriental lands.  This is far from saying that all is perfection.  Even the Japanese make no such claim.  Nor is this equivalent to an assertion of Japan’s equality with the leading lands of the West, although many Japanese are ready to assert this.  But I merely say that the leaders of New Japan have revealed a high order of judicious originality in their imitation of foreign nations.

XVIII

INDIRECTNESS—­“NOMINALITY”