"No."
"Then you mean those who still follow the ancient customs, and maintain the ancient forms of courtesy,—the delightful old men, like your former Chinese teacher, who still represent the old samurai spirit?"
"Yes. Mr. A—— is an ideal samurai. I mean such as he."
"I thought them all that is good and noble. They seemed to me just like their own gods."
"And do you still think so well of them?"
"Yes. And the more I see the Japanese of the new generation, the more I admire the men of the old."
"We also admire them. But, as a foreigner, you must also have observed their defects."
"What defects?"
"Defects in practical knowledge of the Western kind."
"But to judge the men of one civilization by the standard requirements of another, which is totally different in organization, would be unjust. It seems to me that the more perfectly a man represents his own civilization, the more we must esteem him as a citizen, and as a gentleman. And judged by their own standards, which were morally very high, the old Japanese appear to me almost perfect men."