...
The political inquirer, for instance, has wished to study in detail
the form of government, the administration of laws, and the domestic
institutions, under which a nation systematically prohibiting
intercourse with the rest of the world has attained to a state of
civilization, refinement, and intelligence, the mere glimpses of which
so strongly invite further investigation.
The student of physical geography, aware how much national
characteristics are formed or modified by peculiarities of physical
structure in every country, would fain know more of the lands and the
seas, the mountains and the rivers, the forests and the fields, which
fall within the limits of this almost _terra incognita_.
... The man of commerce asks to be told of its products and its trade,
its skill in manufactures, the commodities it needs, and the returns it
can supply.
The scholar asks to be introduced to its literature, that he may
contemplate in historians, poets, and dramatists (for Japan has them
all), a picture of the national mind.
The Christian desires to know the varied phases of their superstition
and idolatry, and longs for the dawn of that day when a purer faith
and more enlightened worship shall bring them within the circle of
Christendom.
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