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A HANDBOOK OF MODERN JAPAN

country was opened are some warrant for believing that this commission will achieve a measure of success.[1]

And yet we understand that legislative enactment alone cannot make these reforms perfectly effective; but we are gratified that intelligent public opinion will support these reforms, not only theoretically, but also practically. For the full fruition of such reforms must be attained through the schools and the public press; and the latter has already begun to work along these very lines. It is, indeed, well for Japan that her leaders realize the necessity of breaking loose from her thraldom to Chinese letters, literature, thought, and ideals.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Rein's "Japan"; "Advance Japan" (Morris), chap. xi.; Knapp's "Feudal and Modern Japan," vol. ii. chaps. i.-iii.; and "Japan in History, Folk-lore and Art" (Griffis), pp. 76-91, 104-107. For special study of the language, Imbrie's "English-Japanese Etymology," Chamberlain's "Hand-book of Colloquial Japanese" and "Moji no Shirube"[2]; Aston's "Grammar of the Japanese Written Language"[3]; and Brinkley's "Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary."[4] On the literature, Aston's "History of Japanese Literature," entire; see also Chamberlain's "Japanese Epigrams" in Transactions Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xxx. part ii.

  1. Reprinted, by permission, from "The Dial," Chicago.
  2. Or "Practical Introduction to the Study of Japanese Writing."
  3. Noss's Lange's "Text-book of Colloquial Japanese" (1908) is very valuable.
  4. The new "English-Japanese Dictionary of the Spoken Language" (1904) is indispensable.