It is a sign that dulness is already spreading in us, if we must go far afield for the stimulating, the wondrous, the miraculous.

The growing sensitiveness of a sound education would help us to distinguish these qualities of romance in the very heart of our daily life.

To have so distinguished them is in my opinion the felicity of Hearn in these chapters.

When he was writing of Japan for European or American readers, we caught easily enough the exotic atmosphere of the island kingdom--easily enough, since it was the essence of a world far removed from ours.

The exotic note is quite as strong in these chapters.