estimate of its power and of its value. And this leads to the further thought of the debt of gratitude owing to the Magician who has wielded his Wand to such good purpose.

It is true, as I said before, that all who come here cannot aspire to take a foremost place in Art. That is reserved for the elect, and in the course of the centuries these have been few indeed. But even so, taking the humblest and least hopeful view of what is being done, we may say that many lives which would otherwise have been dull will have been made bright, if only by acquiring the power of appreciating the work of the great Masters. And not a few, maybe, will have been saved from what is ugly and bad by the love of what is beautiful and good.

You then who are scholars I urge to cultivate Imagination, which is the parent of all true Poetry and all good and noble work. Reverence the Artpoets of the past, bearing in mind that the best work of the Artisan and Craftsman is as much a Poem as "Hamlet Hamlet" or "Paradise Lost." To those who are not scholars I pray your leave to say a word, begging them by every means in their power to encourage the good work that Mr. Ashbee has initiated. Mr. Ashbee, I know, sets a high value upon the assistance which he has received from his Co-Trustees and from the local Committee. Far be it from me to belittle their good influence, yet it must be plain to us that to him belongs the credit, as upon him rests the responsibility, of this work of his Imagination. That being so, to us at least there need not attach the dis-credit of leaving

him to bear his self-imposed burthen alone and without encouragement. A little Sympathy, a little Help, will fall like summer dew upon the good seed which he has sown, and which we may expect to see bearing so rich a harvest of happiness and well-being.

A TALE OF OLD AND NEW JAPAN, BEING A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE JAPAN SOCIETY OF LONDON, NOVEMBER THE 14TH, MDCCCCVI

W

HEN your Secretaries did me the honour

to request that I should read a Paper at the Opening Meeting of this Session of your Society, I felt that I could not refuse so flattering a compliment, but I made it a bargain that they, not I, should choose the subject.

They were good enough to suggest that it might be "a contrast between Japan as it now is and what it was some years since, with the title possibly of 'A Tale of Old and New Japan.""

It will be seen then that I am responsible neither for the text nor for the title of my discourse. It is true that your Secretaries gave me as an alternative subject "some incident in reference to the recent Garter Mission"; but with that I have to the best of my ability dealt in another manner, and, even so, it will be difficult to keep the experiences of that expedition out of our consideration. For if my life during former years in the Far East gave me some knowledge of the Old Japan, it is my recent journey with its many and astonishing experiences which opened my eyes to the full appreciation of that New Japan which has burst upon an astonished world.

It has become the merest platitude to talk of the progress of science during the last fifty years, that pregnant epoch, the teeming mother of many