A correspondent of the Daily Mum who is staying at
Tokio has had an interesting conversation with the Marquis Ito, the Prime Minister of Japan. The Marquis did not enter upon the foreign policy of his country, but he observed that the Europeanising of her civilisation, which was partly accidental, was coming to an end, and that the new genera- tion in Japan were falling back upon the old national mode of life. They had begun to doubt, from contact with Europeans, whether European civilisation was altogether good. He disbelieved entirely in the necessity of religion, bolding that an educated people will be a moral people, and that right-living is far better than prayer. Nevertheless he saw and deplored the lack of reverence among Japanese young men, which might even be a serious source of danger to the community. He had, he hinted, even prevented the extension of education to women because he saw that it would have that very result. The correspondent confirms this view, -describing Young Japan as utterly detestable, without reverence for anything, and inclined to strike against its teachers for the most frivolous reasons. It is "selfish, ignorant, and conceited to the most odious degree." There is a hint in that account which the English lovers of secularised education will do well to study, for this is the result which their system tends to produce in England as well as Japan. Christianity is no doubt harder to kill out than Buddhism or Shintoiam, but once killed they will have to find a substitute in the training of the young, and a mere 4'development of intelligence" will not cl). Why should a merely intelligent being ever suppress himself ?
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