the officials and people have conducted themselves has secured the applause of the world. What has been accomplished is without parallel in history. No other Asiatic country has broken away from the customs of past ages and aligned itself with the institutions and methods of modern civilization; and no other nation of the world has in so short a time undergone so great a transformation and wrought such a development of its resources.
It is especially gratifying to Americans to note the triumphs of Japanese wisdom, persistency, and patriotism,—to feel that they were instrumental in awakening that people to the high ideal which they fixed for themselves, and that they have stood by them as their adviser and friend in their long struggle for regeneration and independence.
The empire has attained its long-sought-for place among the nations. It begins to realize, as announced by the emperor, that it has materially enlarged its responsibilities. It assumes them, proud of its antiquity and confident of a long future before it, inspired by the sentiment so recently sung by its soldiers on the battlefields of Korea and China,—
May our Lord's dominion last
Till a thousand years have passed,
Twice four thousand times o'ertold!
Firm as changeless rock, earth-rooted,
Moss of ages uncorrupted
Grows upon it, green and old!
