sees by the scars on the backs of not a few Japanese that in their youth either their health or their characters left something to be desired.  The moxa, then, is the rod in pickle in “The Garden where Virtues are Cultivated.”  But I think it is not brought out often.  A wrestling ring in a mass of sand thrown down in a yard, a harmonium, a blackboard for the boys to work their will on, doors labelled “The Room of Patience,” “The Room of Honesty,” “The Room of Cleanliness” and “The Room of Good Arrangement,” not to speak of a rabbit loping about the school premises—­these and some other touches in the management of the school spoke of an even stronger influence toward well-doing than the moxa.  But even if the moxa should fail, the attention of the boys could always be drawn to the crematorium.

One who knew the rural districts discoursed to me in this wise:  “The best men are not numerous, but neither are the worst.  I doubt whether the desire to enjoy life is as strong in the Japanese as in the people of the West.  Most farmers would no doubt be happy with material comfort.  Pressed as they have been by material needs, they have no time to think.  When they are easier, they may get something beyond the physical.  At present we must regard their material welfare as the most urgent thing.”  But a man standing by, who was also a countryman, strongly dissented.  “Religion,” he said, “is not only important but fundamental.”

I have been received by more than one prefectural governor at eight in the morning.  His Excellency of Yamagata sets a good example by rising at five and by going to bed at nine.  He told me that he thought the farmer’s chief lack was cheap money.  Low interest and a long term might convert into arable 25,000 acres of barren land in his prefecture.  In the old days, as I knew, the farmers drove tunnels considerable distances for irrigation, but with modern engineering better results would be possible if money were available.  As to the misdeeds of the rivers, it might almost be said that every village was feeling the need of embanking and of going to the source of loss by planting trees in the hills.  Beautiful forests of feudal period had been wasted in the early days of Meiji and the result was now plain.

But attention had to be given to the minds as well as the pockets of the villagers.  Families that were once reasonably content were now discontented.  A livelihood was harder to get, taxation was heavier and there was an increase in needs.  Country people imagined townspeople to be comfortably off, “not realising how they were tormented.”  Villagers envied townsmen their amusements.  Some prefectures had forbidden the Bon dance and had supplied nothing in its place.  It was easy to see why farmers no longer applied themselves so closely to their calling and were wavering in their allegiance to country life.  Healthful amusements were necessary for those whose minds were not much developed.  Also, country people should be taught the true character of town life, and that agriculture, though it might not yield the profit of commerce and industry, ensured a reasonably happy life in healthful places where physical strength could be enjoyed.  The right kind of village libraries should be encouraged.  Music might perhaps be forced into competition with sake.