日本人の微笑（小泉八雲）⑤

THE JAPANESE SMILE (Lafcadio Hearn)

　　Sec. 5　五

As I pen these lines, there returns to me the vision of a Kyoto night. While passing through some wonderfully thronged and illuminated street, of which I cannot remember the name, I had turned aside to look at a statue of Jizo, before the entrance of a very small temple. The figure was that of a kozo, an acolyte—a beautiful boy; and its smile was a bit of divine realism. As I stood gazing, a young lad, perhaps ten years old, ran up beside me, joined his little hands before the image, bowed his head and prayed for a moment in silence. He had but just left some comrades, and the joy and glow of play were still upon his face; and his unconscious smile was so strangely like the smile of the child of stone that the boy seemed the twin brother of the god. And then I thought: 'The smile of bronze or stone is not a copy only; but that which the Buddhist sculptor symbolises thereby must be the explanation of the smile of the race.'

私がこんな事を書いて居ると、或ある京都の一夜の事が幻にやうに浮んで来る。名は思出せないが、どこか不思議に人ごみのする、明るい通りを通つて居る間に、私は大層小さいお寺の入口の前の地蔵を見にわきへ曲つた。その像は美うるはしいお寺の雛僧すうそうの形であつた、そしてその微笑は神々しい写実の物であつた。私は眺めながら立つて居ると、多分十歳程の幼い少年が私のわきへ走りよつて、その像の前に小さい手を合せ、頭を下げてしばらく黙禱した。幾人かの朋友から離れて来たばかりで遊びの楽しさ面白さが未だ顔に残つてゐた、その無意識の微笑は石の雛僧の微笑と不思議に似て居るので、その小児は地蔵と双生児のやうに見えた。そこで私は考へた、『唐金や石の微笑はただの写生ではない、それによつて仏師の象徴して居るものはこの種族の微笑の意味であるに相違ない』

That was long ago; but the idea which then suggested itself still seems to me true. However foreign to Japanese soil the origin of Buddhist art, yet the smile of the people signifies the same conception as the smile of the Bosatsu—the happiness that is born of self-control and self- suppression. 'If a man conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand and another conquer himself, he who conquers himself is the greatest of conquerors.' 'Not even a god can change into defeat the victory of the man who has vanquished himself.' ^[4]

Such Buddhist texts as these—and they are many—assuredly express, though they cannot be assumed to have created, those moral tendencies which form the highest charm of the Japanese character. And the whole moral idealism of the race seems to me to have been imaged in that marvellous Buddha of Kamakura, whose countenance, 'calm like a deep, still water' ^[5] expresses, as perhaps no other work of human hands can have expressed, the eternal truth: 'There is no higher happiness than rest.' ^[6] It is toward that infinite calm that the aspirations of the Orient have been turned; and the ideal of the Supreme Self-Conquest it has made its own. Even now, though agitated at its surface by those new influences which must sooner or later move it even to its uttermost depths, the Japanese mind retains, as compared with the thought of the West, a wonderful placidity. It dwells but little, if at all, upon those ultimate abstract questions about which we most concern ourselves. Neither does it comprehend our interest in them as we desire to be comprehended. 'That you should not be indifferent to religious speculations,' a Japanese scholar once observed to me, 'is quite natural; but it is equally natural that we should never trouble ourselves about them. The philosophy of Buddhism has a profundity far exceeding that of your Western theology, and we have studied it. We have sounded the depths of speculation only to fluid that there are depths unfathomable below those depths; we have voyaged to the farthest limit that thought may sail, only to find that the horizon for ever recedes. And you, you have remained for many thousand years as children playing in a stream but ignorant of the sea. Only now you have reached its shore by another path than ours, and the vastness is for you a new wonder; and you would sail to Nowhere because you have seen the infinite over the sands of life.'

⁴ Dhammapada.

⁵ Dammikkasutta.

⁶ Dhammapada.

それは昔の事であつた、しかしその当時浮んだ考は今もやはり私には本当と思はれる。仏教美術の源は如何に日本の土地に親しみがなくとも、それでも日本人の微笑は菩薩の微笑と同じ思想、即ち、自己抑制と自己征服から生ずる幸福を表はして居る。『戦場に於て千々の敵に克かつよりは独り己に克つもの、彼こそ最上の戦勝者なれ』『天も魔王も梵天もこの常に己を御し自ら制する人の勝利を転じて敗亡となすこと能はず^註四』こんな仏教の文句は沢山ある、そしてこんな文句は日本人の性格の最高の美点である道徳的傾向を創造したと仮定する事はできぬが、たしかに表はして居る。そして日本人種の道徳的理想主義は凡て鎌倉のあの驚くべき大仏の像になつて居るやうに思はれる、その容貌は『深い静かな水のやうに落ちついて^註五』人間の手でできたどんな外ほかの作品も表はす事のできぬやうに『寂滅に勝れる楽あるなし^註六』と云ふ永久の真理を表はして居る。東洋の向上心はその無限の平静の方へ向つて居るのである、そして無上の自己征服の理想を自分の理想として居る。今日でも表面は、早晩根柢までも動かすに相違ない新影響のために動揺して居るが、日本人の心は西洋の思想と比べては驚くべき平静を保つて居る。日本人は私共が最も気にして居る究極の抽象的問題をたとへ念頭に置いて居るにしてもそれは極めて少い。なほ又私共が会得される事を望むやうに、日本人は私共のそれ等の問題に関する興味を会得しない。或ある日本の学者は一度私に云つた、『君が宗教的研究に無頓着で居られないのは、全く自然であるが、私共がそれに対して餘り心を労しないのも同じく自然である。仏教の哲学は君達の西洋の神学よりも遥かにすぐれた深さをもつてゐて、私共はそれを研究して居る。私共は思想の深さを測つて、その深い底の下に測り知られない深さのある事を見出すばかりである。私共は思想の力で達し得べき最も遠い境まで航海したが、地平線が永久に退却する事を見出すばかりである。しかし、君達は、何千年以来、海を知らないで、いつも川の中で遊んで居る子供等のやうである。只君達は今私共の途みちと違つた途でその岸に達した、そしてその渺茫べうばうたる物は、君達にとつては新しい驚異である。そして君達は、人生の砂の上の無窮を見たから、無何有之郷へ航海するであらう』

註四。Dhammapada. 法句経、この訳文は国訳大蔵経による。

註五。Dammikkasutta. 法行経。

註六。Dhammapada. 法句経、国訳大蔵経による。

Will Japan be able to assimilate Western civilisation, as she did Chinese more than ten centuries ago, and nevertheless preserve her own peculiar modes of thought and feeling? One striking fact is hopeful: that the Japanese admiration for Western material superiority is by no means extended to Western morals. Oriental thinkers do not commit the serious blunder of confounding mechanical with ethical progress, nor have any failed to perceive the moral weaknesses of our boasted civilisation. One Japanese writer has expressed his judgment of things Occidental after a fashion that deserves to be noticed by a larger circle of readers than that for which it was originally written:

千年以上の昔、日本は支那の文明を消化して、しかも、特有の思想感情の法式を保存したやうに、西洋の文明を消化する事はできるであらうか。一つ著しく有望な事実がある。それは日本人の西洋の物質的優勝に対する讃嘆は西洋の道徳までは決して及んでゐない事である。東洋の思想家は機械的の進歩と倫理上の進歩とを混同したり、私共の自慢の文明の道徳的弱点を認めなかつたりするやうな重大な誤りはしない。或日本の記者は西洋の事物に関する判断を、もとの読者よりも、もつと広い範囲の読者に読まれる価値があるやうな風に書いて居る、――

'Order or disorder in a nation does not depend upon some-thing that falls from the sky or rises from the earth. It is determined by the disposition of the people. The pivot on which the public disposition turns towards order or disorder is the point where public and private motives separate. If the people be influenced chiefly by public considerations, order is assured; if by private, disorder is inevitable. Public considerations are those that prompt the proper observance of duties; their prevalence signifies peace and prosperity in the case alike of families, communities, and nations. Private considerations are those suggested by selfish motives: when they prevail, disturbance and disorder are unavoidable. As members of a family, our duty is to look after the welfare of that family; as units of a nation, our duty is to work for the good of the nation. To regard our family affairs with all the interest due to our family and our national affairs with all the interest due to our nation—this is to fitly discharge our duty, and to be guided by public considerations. On the other hand, to regard the affairs of the nation as if they were our own family affairs—this is to be influenced by private motives and to stray from the path of duty. …

『一国民の秩序と不秩序とは空から下る物や地から出る物によるのではない。それはその人民の気質によつて定まるのである。公衆の気質が秩序と不秩序の方へ向ふその要は、他利的及び自利的動機の分れる点である。もし公衆が重おもに他利的の考慮によつて動かされる場合には、秩序は保たれるが、自利的であれば、乱雑は免れない。他利的考慮とは正しく義務を守る念を起させるやうな考慮を云ふ、それが行はれると家庭にあつても、社会にあつても、国家にあつても、平和と繁栄を来す。自利的考慮とは利己的な動機から出て来る考慮である。それが力を得ると、争乱と紛擾は避け難い。家庭の一員としては、私共の義務はその家庭の幸福を求むる事であり、国家の一員としては、国家のために働く事である。私共の家族に対してそのためになるやうにとの考を以て家族の事を考へる事、国家に対して、そのためになるやうにとの考を以て国家の事を考へる事、――これは適当に私共の義務を果し、公共的の念慮によつて導かれる事になる。それに反して、国家の事を自分の家庭の事のやうに考へる事、――これは自己的な動機に動かされて、義務の途から離れる事になる。……

'Selfishness is born in every man; to indulge it freely is to become a beast. Therefore it is that sages preach the principles of duty and propriety, justice and morality, providing restraints for private aims and encouragements for public spirit.. . . . What we know of Western civilisation is that it struggled on through long centuries in a confused condition and finally attained a state of some order; but that even this order, not being based upon such principles as those of the natural and immutable distinctions between sovereign and subject, parent and child, with all their corresponding rights and duties, is liable to constant change according to the growth of human ambitions and human aims. Admirably suited to persons whose actions are controlled by selfish ambition, the adoption of this system in Japan is naturally sought by a certain class of politicians. From a superficial point of view, the Occidental form of society is very attractive, inasmuch as, being the outcome of a free development of human desires from ancient times, it represents the very extreme of luxury and extravagance. Briefly speaking, the state of things obtaining in the West is based upon the free play of human selfishness, and can only be reached by giving full sway to that quality. Social disturbances are little heeded in the Occident; yet they are at once the evidences and the factors of the present evil state of affairs. . . . Do Japanese enamoured of Western ways propose to have their nation's history written in similar terms? Do they seriously contemplate turning their country into a new field for experiments in Western civilisation? . . .

『利己主義は生れつき誰にでもある、それに自由に耽る事は動物になる事である。それ故ゆゑ聖人は義務と中庸と正義と道徳の道を説いて、利己の目的を抑へる事と公共の念を励ます事を教へたのである。……私共は西洋文明について知つて居る所では、その文明は数百年の間乱雑な状態で悶えながら進んで、最後に多少の秩序ある状態に達したのであるが、この秩序と雖いへども君主と臣下、親と子の間の自然の不変の区別とそれに伴ふ権利義務の原理に基礎を置いてゐないから、人間的野心と目的の発達と共にたえざる変化に影響され易い。利己的野心によつてその人の行為が支配されるやうな人には至極適当して居るので、日本に於て或種類の政治家が、この制度を採用しようと努めたのは当然である。浅薄な見方から云へば、西洋の社会の形は非常に好もしい、即ち昔から人間の欲望の自由なる発達の結果であるから、その社会の形は奢侈と贅沢の丁度極端を表はして居る。略言すれば、西洋で到達する事物の状態は人類の利己主義を充分に発揮する事を基として居る、それでその性質を充分に発揚して始めて達せられる。社会の不穏は西洋では念頭に置かれない、しかも、それが直ちに現在の悪い社会状態の証拠であり、又要素でもある。……西洋事物を好む日本人は、同一の条件で日本の歴史を書きたいと主張するのであらうか。彼等は本気でその国を西洋文明の実験の新天地としようと考へて居るのであらうか。……

'In the Orient, from ancient times, national government has been based on benevolence, and directed to securing the welfare and happiness of the people. No political creed has ever held that intellectual strength should be cultivated for the purpose of exploiting inferiority and ignorance. . . . The inhabitants of this empire live, for the most part, by manual labour. Let them be never so industrious, they hardly earn enough to supply their daily wants. They earn on the average about twenty sen daily. There is no question with them of aspiring to wear fine clothes or to inhabit handsome houses. Neither can they hope to reach positions of fame and honour. What offence have these poor people committed that they, too, should not share the benefits of Western civilisation? . . . By some, indeed, their condition is explained on the hypothesis that their desires do not prompt them to better themselves. There is no truth in such a supposition. They have desires, but nature has limited their capacity to satisfy them; their duty as men limits it, and the amount of labour physically possible to a human being limits it. They achieve as much as their opportunities permit. The best and finest products of their labour they reserve for the wealthy; the worst and roughest they keep for their own use. Yet there is nothing in human society that does not owe its existence to labour. Now, to satisfy the desires of one luxurious man, the toil of a thousand is needed. Surely it is monstrous that those who owe to labour the pleasures suggested by their civilisation should forget what they owe to the labourer, and treat him as if he were not a fellow-being. But civilisation, according to the interpretation of the Occident, serves only to satisfy men of large desires. It is of no benefit to the masses, but is simply a system under which ambitions compete to accomplish their aims. . . . That the Occidental system is gravely disturbing to. the order and peace of a country is seen by men who have eyes, and heard by men who have ears. The future of Japan under such a system fills us with anxiety. A system based on the principle that ethics and religion are made to serve human ambition naturally accords with the wishes of selfish individuals; and such theories as those embodied in the modem formula of liberty and equality annihilate the established relations of society, and outrage decorum and propriety. . . .Absolute equality and absolute liberty being unattainable, the limits prescribed by right and duty are supposed to be set. But as each person seeks to have as much right and to be burdened with as little duty as possible, the results are endless disputes and legal contentions. The principles of liberty and equality may succeed in changing the organisation of nations, in overthrowing the lawful distinctions of social rank, in reducing all men to one nominal level; but they can never accomplish the equal distribution of wealth and property. Consider America. . . . It is plain that if the mutual rights of men and their status are made to depend on degrees of wealth, the majority of the people, being without wealth, must fail to establish their rights; whereas the minority who are wealthy will assert their rights, and, under society's sanction, will exact oppressive duties from the poor, neglecting the dictates of humanity and benevolence. The adoption of these principles of liberty and equality in Japan would vitiate the good and peaceful customs of our country, render the general disposition of the people harsh and unfeeling, and prove finally a source of calamity to the masses. . .

『東洋では昔から、その国の政府は仁を基として、人民の安寧幸福をはかる事に心を使つた。如何なる政治上の信条を有する者も、野卑無学を利用するために智力を磨くべきだと考へた者はなかつた。……この帝国の住民の大多数は手の労働で生計を営んで居る。如何に勤勉でも日々の缺乏を充たすだけの儲けは容易には得られない。彼等は平均一日に二十銭ばかりを儲ける。立派な着物を着よう、宏壮な家に住まう、と望む事は問題にならない。名誉評判の地位に達する事は望めない。これ等の貧しい人々は、さらに西洋文明の利益を享うけられない事は如何なる罪を犯したためであらうか。……彼等に欲望があつて彼等を向上させる事にならないからだと云ふ臆説で彼等の境遇を説明する者がある。こんな想像は不道理である。彼等も欲望はある、しかしそれを満足させる力に限りがある、人間としての彼等の義務はそれを制限する、そして肉体的に人間に可能な労働の分量はそれを限つて居る。機会の許す限り彼等は沢山の物を仕上げる。彼等の労働の最上最優の物は富める人々のために保留して、最劣最下の物は自らの使用として残す。しかも、人類社会に於て、労働のおかげで存在しない者はない。一人の贅沢な人の欲望を満足させるためには千人の労働を必要とする。労働のおかげで、彼等の文明から思ひついた快楽を享けて居る人々はそのおかげを忘れて、労働者を同胞人類でないやうな取扱をする事は全く奇怪千万である。しかし西洋の解釈によれば、文明はただ大きな欲望の人々を満足させる事になるだけである。それは大多数の人々のためにならない、ただ野心家がその目的を果すために競争する制度に過ぎない。……西洋の制度は国の平和や秩序をひどく乱す物である事は眼ある人に見え、耳ある人に聞える事である。こんな制度の下に日本を置く事は私共をして心配にたへざらしめる。倫理と宗教が人間の野心に副そふやうに作られる主義を基とした制度は当然利己的な人間の欲望と一致して居る。そして自由平等と云ふ近代の信条に含まれたやうな説は社会のきまつた関係を破壊し礼儀礼節を滅却する。……絶対の自由絶対の平等は得られないから、権利と義務で定めた制限を置くやうに考へられて居る。しかし銘々ができるだけ多くの権利を求めて、できるだけ少い義務を負担しようとするから、その結果はたえざる諍論と法律上の争になる。自由平等の主義は、社会階級の区別を覆くつがへして凡ての人々を一つの名ばかりの水平線にもつて行く事で、国家の組織を変へる事に成功するかも知れない、しかし、その主義は決して富と財産の平分をする事はできない。アメリカを見れば分る。……人及びその身分の権利が、富の程度によるやうに作られて居る時には、多数の人々は貧しいから、その権利を確立する事はできない、しかるに富んだ少数の人々はその権利を主張して、社会の認可の下に、仁義道徳の命を顧みないで、貧しい人々に対して圧制的な義務を要求するであらう。日本に於てこの自由平等の主義を採用する事は善良平和な風俗を害し、人民一般の気質を苛酷不人情ならしめ、結局大多数の人には不幸の源となるであらう。……

'Though at first sight Occidental civilisation presents an attractive appearance, adapted as it is to the gratification of selfish desires, yet, since its basis is the hypothesis that men' 's wishes constitute natural laws, it must ultimately end in disappointment and demoralisation. . . . Occidental nations have become what they are after passing through conflicts and vicissitudes of the most serious kind; and it is their fate to continue the struggle. Just now their motive elements are in partial equilibrium, and their social condition' is more or less ordered. But if this slight equilibrium happens to be disturbed, they will be thrown once more into confusion and change, until, after a period of renewed struggle and suffering, temporary stability is once more attained. The poor and powerless of the present may become the wealthy and strong of the future, and vice versa. Perpetual disturbance is their doom. Peaceful equality can never be attained until built up among the ruins of annihilated Western' states and the ashes of extinct Western peoples.' ^[7]

⁷ These extracts from a translation in the Japan Daily Mail, November 19, 20, 1890, of Viscount Torio's famous conservative essay do not give a fair idea of the force and logic of the whole. The essay is too long to quote entire; and any extracts from the Mail's admirable translation suffer by their isolation from the singular chains of ethical, religious, and philosophical reasoning which bind the Various parts of the composition together. The essay was furthermore remarkable as the production of a native scholar totally uninfluenced by Western thought. He correctly predicted those social and political disturbances which have occurred in Japan since the opening of the new parliament. Viscount Torio is also well known as a master of Buddhist philosophy. He holds a high rank in the Japanese army.

『利己的欲望を満足させる事に実際適して居るから一見して西洋文明は好もしく見えるが、しかしその根本は、人間の願望は自然の法則であると云ふ臆説に基して居るから、結局失望と道徳頽廃に終るに相違ない。……西洋の諸国民は、最も深刻な種類の争乱と興敗を経て、今日の状態となつて居る、そしてその争闘を続けるのがその運命である。丁度今彼等の動機となる要素は幾分平均を保つて居るので、社会状態は多少秩序を保つて居る。しかし一旦この危あやうい平均の乱れる事があれば、新しい争闘と苦悩の時期を経たのち、一時の平静がもう一度得られるまで、もう一度混乱と変動に陥るであらう。現在の貧しい人々や無力な人々は将来の富んだ人々強い人々となつて、その反対の人々はその逆になるであらう。永久の動乱は彼等の運命である。平和な平等は滅亡した西洋諸国の廃墟と絶滅した西洋の人々の屍の間に建てられるまでは決して到達される事はない^註七』

註七。これは鳥尾（小弥太、得庵）子爵の名高い保守的論文を、一八九〇（明治二十三年）十一月十九日、二十日、『ジャパン・メイル』が翻訳してのせし物の抄であるが、全体の力と論理が充分に表はれてゐない。その論文は全部引用するには長すぎる、そして、『メイル』の立派な翻訳をどう云ふ風に抜いても、その抜いたために、その文章の色々な部分を結合して居る倫理的宗教的及び哲学的推理の鎖が弱くなる。さらにこの論文は西洋思想に全然影響されない、日本の学者の発表した物として注目に値する。彼は新しい議会の開会以来日本に起つた社会上政治上の動乱を正しく豫言した。鳥尾子爵は又仏教哲学者として名高い。日本陸軍では高い位地の人である。

Surely, with perceptions like these, Japan may hope to avert some of the social perils which menace her. Yet it appears inevitable that her approaching transformation must be coincident with a moral decline. Forced into the vast industrial competition of nation's whose civilisations were never based on altruism, she must eventually develop those qualities of which the comparative absence made all the wonderful charm of her life. The national character must continue to harden, as it has begun to harden already. But it should never be forgotten that Old Japan was quite as much in advance of the nineteenth century morally as she was behind it materially. She had made morality instinctive, after having made it rational. She had realised, though within restricted limits, several among those social conditions which our ablest thinkers regard as the happiest and the highest. Throughout all the grades of her complex society she had cultivated both the comprehension and the practice of public and private duties after a manner for which it were vain to seek any Western parallel. Even her moral weakness was the result of an excess of that which all civilised religions have united in proclaiming virtue—the self-sacrifice of the individual for the sake of the family, of the community, and of the nation. It was the weakness indicated by Percival Lowell in his Soul of the Far East, a book of which the consummate genius cannot be justly estimated without some personal knowledge of the Far East. ^[8] The progress made by Japan in social morality, although greater than our own, was chiefly in the direction of mutual dependence. And it will be her coming duty to keep in view the teaching of that mighty thinker whose philosophy she has wisely accepted ^[9]—the teaching that 'the highest individuation must be joined with the greatest mutual dependence,' and that, however seemingly paradoxical the statement, 'the law of progress is at once toward complete separateness and complete union.

⁸ In expressing my earnest admiration of this wonderful book, I must, however, declare that several of its conclusions, and especially the final ones, represent the extreme reverse of my own beliefs on the subject. I do not think the Japanese without individuality; but their individuality is less superficially apparent, and reveals itself much less quickly, than that of Western people. I am also convinced that much of what we call 'personality' and 'force of character' in the West represents only the survival and recognition of primitive aggressive tendencies, more or less disguised by culture. What Mr. Spencer calls the highest individuation surely does not include extraordinary development of powers adapted to merely aggressive ends; and yet it is rather through these than through any others that Western individuality most commonly and readily manifests itself. Now there is, as yet, a remarkable scarcity in Japan, of domineering, brutal, aggressive, or morbid individuality. What does impress one as an apparent weakness in Japanese intellectual circles is the comparative absence of spontaneity, creative thought, original perceptivity of the highest order. Perhaps this seeming deficiency is racial: the peoples of the Far East seem to have been throughout their history receptive rather than creative. At all events I cannot believe Buddhism—originally the faith of an Aryan race—can be proven responsible. The total exclusion of Buddhist influence from public education would not seem to have been stimulating; for the masters of the old Buddhist philosophy still show a far higher capacity for thinking in relations than that of the average graduate of the Imperial University. Indeed, I am inclined to believe that an intellectual revival of Buddhism—a harmonising of its loftier truths with the best and broadest teachings of modern science—would have the most important results for Japan.

⁹ Herbert Spencer. A native scholar, Mr. Inouye Enryo, has actually founded at Tokyo with this noble object in view, a college of philosophy which seems likely, at the present writing, to become an influential institution. 

たしかに、このやうな知覚を以て、日本は自分を嚇おびやかす社会的危険を幾分避けられるであらう。しかし日本に将まさに来らんとする変化は、道徳的衰亡を来す事は避けられないやうに思はれる。その文明が愛他主義に基づいてゐない諸国民と、大きな産業上の競争をせねばならなくなつたので、日本は、これまでそれが比較的少い事が全く日本生活の不思議な美点となつてゐた凡ての悪徳を、結局養成して行かねばならない。国民性はもう悪化しかけて来たが、引続き悪化せねばならない。しかし古い日本は、物質的には十九世紀の日本よりも劣つてゐたが、道徳的には餘程進んでゐた事を忘れてはならない。日本は道徳を合理的にしたあとで、それを本能的にしてゐた。日本は私共の思想家が最も幸福な最も高尚な社会状態と考へる物を色々、狭い範囲に於てであるが、実現してゐた。複雑な社会の凡ての階級を通じて、日本は公の及び私の義務を会得して実行する事を養成して来たが、その風は西洋ではその比を見出す事はできない。日本の道徳的弱点でも、凡ての進んだ宗教が一致して美徳と賞讃して居る物――即ち家族、国体、及び国家のために一身を犠牲にする事――が極端に進んだ結果であつた。それはパーシヴァル・ロウヱルが、その『極東の魂』――極東の多少の^註八実際的智識がなければ、その完全な天才が充分に評価ができないその書物――に示してある弱点であつた。日本が社会道徳の方面でなした進歩は、私共自身の進歩より大きいけれども、重おもに相互にたより合ふと云ふ方面であつた。それで日本の将来の義務は、その人の哲学を日本が賢くも採用したその偉大なる思想家^註九の教を忘れない事である――その教は、『最も高い独居は最も大きな相互依存と伴はれねばならない』と云ふ事、それから一見如何にも相反するやうに見える文句ではあるが、『進歩の法則は完全なる別居と同時に完全なる協同の方へ向ふ』と云ふ事である。

註八。この名著に対しては私は熱心なる賞讃を表はすけれども、その結論の多くの物殊に最終の物は、その問題に対する私自身の信ずる事と極端に反して居る事を私は公言せねばならない。私は日本人は個性をもたないとは思はない。ただ日本人の個性は西洋人の個性程表面的に現はれない、又現はれ方も遥かに遅い。私は又私共が西洋で『人格』及び『品性の力』と云つて居る物の多くは、多少修養で変装された原始的な攻撃的傾向の残存と承認を表はすに過ぎないと信じて居る。スペンサー氏の所謂最高の独居は単に攻撃的目的に応用された力の異常な発達を含んでゐない、しかし西洋の個性が最も普通に容易に表はれるのは、他の方法よりはむしろこの方法によるのである。見たところ、日本の智力界の弱点と人に思はせる物は、自発、創造的思想、最高種類の認識力の比較的に缺乏して居る事である。恐らくさう見える缺点は人種的である。極東の人々は、歴史を通じて、創造的でなくて、感受的であつたらしい。とにかく私は仏教――元来アリヤン種族の信仰――はそれに対して責任があるとは証明されないと思ふ。普通教育から仏教の勢力を全然除外する事は奨励すべきではなかつたらう、古い仏教哲学者の方がやはり、帝国大学の普通の卒業者の才能よりも広く考へる方の遥かに優れた才能を示して居る。実際私は仏教の智力的復活――近代科学の最良最広の教とその高い方の信仰とを調和した物――は日本に取つて最も重大な結果を及ぼすであらうと信ずる。井上円了氏と云ふ日本の学者は東京に、全くこの目的で哲学の専門学校（哲学録、現在の東洋大学の前身）を創立した、その学校は今のところ有力な学校となるらしい。

註九。ハーバート・スペンサー。

Yet to that past which her younger generation now affect to despise Japan will certainly one day look back, even as we ourselves look back to the old Greek civilisation. She will learn to regret the forgotten capacity for simple pleasures, the lost sense of the pure joy of life, the old loving divine intimacy with nature, the marvellous dead art which reflected it. She will remember how much more luminous and beautiful the world then seemed. She will mourn for many things—the old-fashioned patience and self-sacrifice, the ancient courtesy, the deep human poetry of the ancient faith. She will wonder at many things; but she will regret. Perhaps she will wonder most of all at the faces of the ancient gods, because their smile was once the likeness of her own.

日本の青年は今軽蔑の風を示して居るその過去に対して、日本はいつかは必ず回顧する事、丁度私共自身が古いギリシヤの文明を回顧するやうであらう。簡易な楽しみに対する才能の忘れられた事、人生の純な喜びに対する感性のなくなつた事、自然との古い愛すべき聖い親密な交際、それを反映して居る今はない驚くべき藝術、を惜むやうになるであらう。その当時世界が如何に遥かにもつと輝いて美しく見えたかを想ひ出すであらう。古風な忍耐と、犠牲、古い礼譲、古い信仰の深い人間の詩、――日本は悔むべき物が沢山あらう。日本は多くの物を見て驚くであらうが、又残念に思ふであらう。恐らく最も驚く物は昔の神々の顔であらう、何故なればその微笑は一度は自分の微笑であつたのだから。

ラフカディオ・ハーン「知られぬ日本の面影」『小泉八雲全集　第三巻』、第一書房、大正１５年