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by other considerations. Toward the latter we have an imperative duty, as toward a protégé, because it was America who started Japan on her present career and must acknowledge the responsibility to assist her in every laudable purpose. And certainly her aims in the Far East coincide with ours and with the dictates of civilization. The supremacy of Japan in Eastern Asia means far more for America and American institutions than does the domination of Russia. Japan to-day enjoys rights unknown in Russia: social freedom, political privileges, representative institutions, local self-government, intellectual liberty, freedom of assembly and of the press, and religious liberty. Japan is already far in advance of Russia and, in many respects abreast of Germany, in civilization. And, as "Japan holds the key of the Far Eastern position," she is our natural ally. Dai Nippon banzai—"Long live Great Japan."

But let us now revert again to the Japanese writer quoted near the close of the first chapter. With a reminder of the ever westward course of empire, he pens a paragraph so bold and suggestive that it is worth transcribing:^[1]—

"Two streams of civilization flowed in opposite directions when mankind descended from their primitive homes on the table-land of Iran or America. That towards the west passed through Babylon, Phœnicia, Greece, Rome, Germany, England, and culminated in America, while