“The gesticulation of Nature and Life emphatically drawn on the little pieces of ivory.”
Woman in Japan used to marry because marriage was thought most proper, even natural; but now she marries because it is very expensive. And the man marries from the sense of economy, not only physical but also spiritual; that is the point where he makes the first misstep in life.
Woman, at least in Japan, is always decorative in the common use of the word; in that she, as a piece of art, rarely rises into a pure high art, lies her merit. To say she is materialistic does her hardly justice; I see a case when she is spiritual, but it is more or less from the motive that she wishes to conceal her unhappiness and failure.
It is only sin, let me say, that never grows old; its homogeniety is quite peculiar. Indeed its hatred of respectability is most modern. When virtue changes, evolves, that is sure proof that it is never so strong as the sin itself,
