KŌBE, December, 1894.
DEAR HENDRICK,--So it was _you_ that sent me "Trilby"--the
magical thing! I never knew till the Spencer came, and Kipling's "Jungle
Book." And the joke is that I thanked another man for the gift of
"Trilby," and the beast never let on. And I wrote a two and one-half
column review of "Trilby" to please _him_. Oh! you rascal! why didn't
you tell me? Love to you for "Trilby." ...
Glad you liked my first book on Japan. The _Tribune_ essay vexed me....
The curious fact of the article was the statement about the influence
of the _decadents_ and of Verlaine being "apparent." Never read a line
of Verlaine in my life,--and only know enough of the decadent school to
convince me that the principle is scientifically wrong, and that to
study the stuff is mere waste of time.
I am writing one article a day for 100 yen a month. Exchange is so low
now that the 100 represents something less than 50 in American money.
And my eyes, or eye, giving out. Curious!--cold seriously affects my
remnant of sight. If I had a few thousand I should go to a hot climate
during the winter months. Heat gives me good vision. Even a Japanese hot
bath temporarily restores clearness of sight....
Of course, we shall never see each other again in this world. And what
is the use of being unkind--after all? Life to us literary folk--small
and great--is so short, and we are never in competition, like business
men who _must_ compete--_what_ is the use of meanness? I suppose
there must be some use. The effect is certainly to convince a man
of "fourty-four" that the less he has to do with his fellow men the
better,--or, at least, that the less he has to do with the so-called
"cultured" the better....
The other day you told me of some queer changes in your inner life
wrought by the influences of the outer. In my case the changes are very
unpleasant. I can't feel towards men generally any longer as I used
to--I feel, in short, a little misanthropic. The general facts seem to
be that all realities of relations between men are of self-interest in
the main; that the pleasures of those relations are illusions--dependent
upon youth, power, position, etc., for degree of intensity. No man, as
a general rule, shows his soul to another man; he shows it only to a
woman,--and then only with the assurance that she won't give him away.
As a matter of fact, she can't:--the Holy Ghost takes care of that! No
woman unveils herself to another woman--only to a man; and what she
unveils he cannot betray. He can only talk of her body, if he is brute
enough to wish to: the inner being, of which he has had some glimpses,
can be pictured only in a language which he cannot use. But what a
fighting masked-ball the whole thing is!
Have you read Huxley's views on Ethics and Evolution? They have been
a great revelation to me. They make it perfectly plain why men cannot
be good to one another on general principles without causing trouble
in the order of the universe. They also explain the immorality of
Nature. Cosmic principles afford explanations of--but not consolations
for--individual experiences.