Lafcadio Hearn.
TO ELLWOOD HENDRICK
Kumamoto, August, 1893.
Dear Hendrick,— ... And now for a letter. Your last two letters were full of curious things that call for no answer, but, in connection with foregoing ones, certainly invite comment. More and more, reading your lightning-flash glimpses of life, I think how terribly tragical modern life is becoming. What is its law? Is it not something like this?—
General: (1) Theoretically, you must be good. (2) Practically you must be not very good,—unless you wish to starve or live in the slime. (3) Reconcile these facts very intelligently, without making any blunders.
Special: (1) If you are not more intelligent than the average man, you must be both theoretically and practically good,—and resign yourself to remaining poor and despised all your blessed life. Don’t kick: if you do, you‘ll die! (2) In proportion as you are more intelligent than your fellow man, the more to your interest to depart from abstract moral rules;—the more, indeed, you must. It is quite true that vice and crime lead to ruin. Still, you must perform your part of both without getting into trouble. If you don’t, you will die. (3) Reconcile intelligently these seeming contradictions.
The contradictions can only be fully recognized and reconciled through a profound knowledge of social conditions, not in the abstract only, but in the most complex operation. This is the theoretical recognition. But the practical recognition requires special hereditary gifts,—intuitions,—instincts,—powers. Mere education in business alone won’t do. That only makes servants. Masters must be natural masters of men. Life is an intellectual battle, but not a battle to be fought out by mere chess-combinations. It is also a battle of characters. The combinations required for success are of the most difficult—comprising force, perception, versatility, resource,—and enough comprehension of morals as factors in sociology to avoid fatal mistakes. He who has all this, and strong health, goes to the top. But he has there to fight for his standing-room. Besides all other fighting, he has to fight against himself.
In the Buddhist system, the soul, by self-suppression and struggle against temptation, obtains Light and effects progress. The Past begins to be remembered, the Future to be foreseen. But always in proportion to the progress and the enlightenment, the temptations increase. For example, one reward of virtue is beauty and high sexual power (!) The more indulgence is despised, the greater these gifts. The Soul reaches heaven. Then is the greatest of all temptations. Life for thousands of ages,—supreme beauty and power,—supreme loveliness of celestial beings offered to feast upon. And here can be no sin: it is only a question of further progress. Indulgence means retrogression. The wise only pass to Nirvana.—Now I fancy the battle of life has the same moral.
It is a terrible battle now, though; and is becoming fiercer every year,—and aggravating with a velocity beyond all precedent. (I see there is a falling-off in the birth-rate of the U.S.—which means increased difficulty of living.) And ultimately what must come out of all this? Pain is certainly the only reliable creator,—the only one whose work endures. Extraordinary intelligence and, mental dynamical power will be results, of course,—up to a certain time. I do not see much likelihood, however, of moral development. Indeed, as Mackintosh long ago said, morals have been at a standstill since the beginning of history: we have made no apparent progress in that. Then comes the question, Are we not developing immorally?