BOOKS AND HABITS




CHAPTER I

THE INSUPERABLE DIFFICULTY


I wish to speak of the greatest difficulty with which the Japanese
students of English literature, or of almost any Western literature, have
to contend. I do not think that it ever has been properly spoken about. A
foreign teacher might well hesitate to speak about, it--because, if he
should try to explain it merely from the Western point of view, he could
not hope to be understood; and if he should try to speak about it from the
Japanese point of view, he would be certain to make various mistakes and
to utter various extravagances. The proper explanation might be given by a
Japanese professor only, who should have so intimate an acquaintance with
Western life as to sympathize with it. Yet I fear that it would be
difficult to find such a Japanese professor for this reason, that just in
proportion as he should find himself in sympathy with Western life, in
that proportion he would become less and less able to communicate that
sympathy to his students. The difficulties are so great that it has taken
me many years even to partly guess how great they are. That they can be
removed at the present day is utterly out of the question. But something
may be gained by stating them even imperfectly. At the risk of making
blunders and uttering extravagances, I shall make the attempt. I am
impelled to do so by a recent conversation with one of the cleverest