live without furniture, without impedimenta, with the least possible amount of neat clothing, shows more than the advantage held by the Japanese race in the struggle of life; it shows also the real character of some of the weaknesses in our own civilization.  It forces reflection upon the useless multiplicity of our daily wants.  We must have meat and bread and butter; glass windows and fire; hats, white shirts, and woolen underwear; boots and shoes; trunks, bags, and boxes; bedsteads, mattresses, sheets, and blankets; all of which a Japanese can do without, and is really better off without."[G] Surely one finds much of truth in this, and there is no denying the charm of the simpler civilization, but the closing phrase of the quotation is the assumption without discussion of the disputed point.  Are the Japanese really better off without these implements of Western civilization?  Evidently they themselves do not think so.  For, in glancing through the list as given by the writer quoted, one realizes the extent of Japanese adoption of these Western devices.  Hardly an article but is used in Japan, and certainly with the supposition of the purchaser that it adds either to his health or his comfort.  In witness are the hundreds of thousands of straw hats, the glass windows everywhere, and the meat-shops in each town and city of the Empire.  The charm of a foreign fashion is not sufficient explanation for the rapidly spreading use of foreign inventions.

That there are no useless or even evil features in our Western civilization is not for a moment contended.  The stiff starched shirt may certainly be asked to give an account of itself and justify its continued existence, if it can.  But I think the proposition is capable of defense that the vast majority of the implements of our Occidental civilization have their definite place and value, either in contributing directly to the comfort and happiness of their possessor, or in increasing his health and strength and general mental and physical power.  What is it that makes the Occidental longer-lived than the Japanese?  Why is he healthier?  Why is he more intelligent?  Why is he a more developed personality?  Why are his children more energetic?  Or, reversing the questions, why has the population of Japan been increasing with leaps and bounds since the introduction of Western civilization and medical science?  Why is the rising generation so free from pockmarks?  Why is the number of the blind steadily diminishing?  Why are mechanisms multiplying so rapidly—­the jinrikisha, the railroads, the roads, the waterworks and sewers, the chairs, the tables, the hats and umbrellas, lamps, clocks, glass windows and shoes?  A hundred similar questions might be asked, to which no definite answers are needful.