Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 5, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume II
(182) Page 166
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MEN AND BOOKS
different syllables, almost as in French, the vowels
as in Italian, but the consonants in the English
manner — except the j, which has the French sound,
or, as it has been cleverly proposed to write it, the
sound of zh. Yoshida was very learned in Chinese
letters, or, as we might say, in the classics, and in
his father's subject ; fortification was among his
favourite studies, and he was a poet from his boy-
hood. He was born to a lively and intelligent
patriotism ; the condition of Japan was his great
concern ; and while he projected a better future, he
lost no opportunity of improving his knowledge of
her present state. With this end he was continually
travelling in his youth, going on foot and sometimes
with three days' provisions on his back, in the brave,
self-helpful manner of all heroes. He kept a full
diary while he was thus upon his journeys, but it is
feared that these notes have been destroyed. If
their value were in any respect such as we have
reason to expect from the man's character, this
would be a loss not easy to exaggerate. It is still
wonderful to the Japanese how far he contrived to
push these explorations ; a cultured gentleman of
that land and period would leave a complimentary
poem wherever he had been hospitably entertained ;
and a friend of Mr. Masaki, who was likewise a great
wanderer, has found such traces of Yoshida's passage
in very remote regions of Japan.
Politics is perhaps the only profession for which
no preparation is thought necessary ; but Yoshida
considered otherwise, and he studied the miseries of
i66
different syllables, almost as in French, the vowels
as in Italian, but the consonants in the English
manner — except the j, which has the French sound,
or, as it has been cleverly proposed to write it, the
sound of zh. Yoshida was very learned in Chinese
letters, or, as we might say, in the classics, and in
his father's subject ; fortification was among his
favourite studies, and he was a poet from his boy-
hood. He was born to a lively and intelligent
patriotism ; the condition of Japan was his great
concern ; and while he projected a better future, he
lost no opportunity of improving his knowledge of
her present state. With this end he was continually
travelling in his youth, going on foot and sometimes
with three days' provisions on his back, in the brave,
self-helpful manner of all heroes. He kept a full
diary while he was thus upon his journeys, but it is
feared that these notes have been destroyed. If
their value were in any respect such as we have
reason to expect from the man's character, this
would be a loss not easy to exaggerate. It is still
wonderful to the Japanese how far he contrived to
push these explorations ; a cultured gentleman of
that land and period would leave a complimentary
poem wherever he had been hospitably entertained ;
and a friend of Mr. Masaki, who was likewise a great
wanderer, has found such traces of Yoshida's passage
in very remote regions of Japan.
Politics is perhaps the only profession for which
no preparation is thought necessary ; but Yoshida
considered otherwise, and he studied the miseries of
i66
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Early editions of Robert Louis Stevenson > Collected works > Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Miscellanies, Volume II > (182) Page 166 |
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Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/90446022 |
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Dates / events: |
1895 [Date published] |
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Subject / content: |
Literature (humanities) Essays Criticism Anthologies |
Person / organisation: |
Burns, Robert, 1759-1796 [Subject of text] Villon, François, b. 1431 [Subject of text] Knox, John, ca. 1514-1572 [Subject of text] Pepys, Samuel, 1633-1703 [Subject of text] Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885 [Subject of text] Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 [Subject of text] Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862 [Subject of text] Yoshida, Shōin, 1830-1859 [Subject of text] Charles, d’Orléans, 1394-1465 [Subject of text] |
Form / genre: |
Written and printed matter > Books |
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Dates / events: |
1894-1898 [Date printed] |
Places: |
Europe >
United Kingdom >
Scotland >
Edinburgh >
Edinburgh
(inhabited place) [Place printed] |
Subject / content: |
Collected works |
Person / organisation: |
Chatto & Windus (Firm) [Distributor] Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894 [Author] T. and A. Constable [Printer] Longmans, Green, and Co. [Publisher] Colvin, Sidney, 1845-1927 [Editor] |
Person / organisation: |
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894 [Author] |
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