"MARK RUTHERFORD."
[To TUE EDITOR OF TUE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,--1 note that in your article on "Mark Rutherford" you say that his books "cannot be fully appreciated by a young man." The greatest appreciation of his writings that I have ever come across was on the part of a young Japanese. A few years ago, when I was in Tokyo, a young man came to my house bringing a letter of introduction and stating that he had a favour to ask, which was that I should lend him my copy of "Quest and Vision" (Dawson). I said that I was quite will- ing to lend him the book, but would like to know why he wanted it. He said that he wanted it because he had heard from this friend of mine that "Quest and -Vision" contained a critique on" Mark Rutherford." A certain clergyman had lent him "Mark Rutherford" in two volumes, and he had been so delighted with it that be sat up at nights till he had copied out the whole of the first volume. It seemed to him that the book just represented his own soul. He bad never seen any criticism on "Mark Rutherford," but my friend happened to mention that there was one in "Quest and Vision" and that I possessed the book. He had searched the bookshops of Yokohama and Tokyo for "Quest and Vision," but in vain, so he now came to beg the loan of it for a few days. This young man, who felt that "Mark Rutherford" was like a mirror held up to his own soul, was attending the English course at the Tokyo University, and was about twenty-five.—I am, Sir, &c.,
S. B.
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