A marvellous imitator truly, but imitating us only in
things material. Things spiritual cannot be imitated; they must be
felt and lived, woven into the very fabric of life, and here the
Japanese fails.
It required no revolution of his nature to learn to calculate the
range and fire a field gun or to march the goose-step. It was a mere
matter of training. Our material achievement is the product of our
intellect. It is knowledge, and knowledge, like coin, is
interchangeable. It is not wrapped up in the heredity of the new-
born child, but is something to be acquired afterward. Not so with
our soul stuff, which is the product of an evolution which goes back
to the raw beginnings of the race. Our soul stuff is not a coin to
be pocketed by the first chance comer. The Japanese cannot pocket it
any more than he can thrill to short Saxon words or we can thrill to
Chinese hieroglyphics. The leopard cannot change its spots, nor can
the Japanese, nor can we. We are thumbed by the ages into what we
are, and by no conscious inward effort can we in a day rethumb
ourselves.
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