If the peaks of intellect rise less eminent, the plateau of general elevation stands higher.

But little need be said to prove the civilization of a land where ordinary tea-house girls are models of refinement, and common coolies, when not at work, play chess for pastime.
If Japanese ways look odd at first sight, they but look more odd on closer acquaintance.

In a land where, to allow one's understanding the freer play of indoor life, one begins, not by taking off his hat, but by removing his boots, he gets at the very threshold a hint that humanity is to be approached the wrong end to.

When, after thus entering a house, he tries next to gain admittance to the mind of its occupant, the suspicion becomes a certainty.

He discovers that this people talk, so to speak, backwards; that before he can hope to comprehend them, or make himself understood in return, he must learn to present his thoughts arranged in inverse order from the one in which they naturally suggest themselves to his mind.