Japan and the Japanese

THUNBERG'S CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 423
Though the view taken by Thunberg of the Japanese presents
them perhaps not quite so high in the scale of civilization as Kamp-
fer's, yet he is scarcely less their admirer, coinciding, indeed, in this
respect, with most of the Europeans who have left any memorials
of their observations in Japan. He notes especially their courtesy,
friendly disposition, ingenuity, love of knowledge, justice, honesty,
frugality, cleanliness and self-respect ; and he emphatically repudiates
the conclusion that, because the laws are severe and strictly
executed, the people are therefore to be regarded as slaves. These
laws are for the public good, and their severity ensures their observ-
ance. "The Japanese," he tells us, "hate and detest the inhuman
traffic in slaves, carried on by the Dutch, and the cruelty with which
these poor creatures are treated."
In common with Kiimpfer he admires and extols the immutability
of the Japanese laws and customs ;
but this seems hardly so legiti-
mate a subject of eulogy as the peace in which the empire is kept,
the plenty which is said to prevail,* and its freedom as well from
internal feuds, political or religious, as from foreign encroachments.
Thuriberg's Flora Japonica describes about a thousand species,
of which upwards of three hundred were new. In the preface
to it, he speaks of the. Japanese Islands as chiefly hills and
valleys, with high mountains. Plains and meadows are rare. The
soil is now clayey and now sandy. The summer heat is
great, especially
in July and August, sometimes one hundred degrees of Fahren-
heit, and scarcely tolerable but for the breeze. In winter the ther-
mometer, even in the most southern parts, falls many degrees below
the freezing-point, especially with the wind from the north and west,
with ice and snow, which on the highest mountains remains all the
year round. The changes in the weather are great and sudden ;
violent storms with thunder and lightning are common. The rain?
are abundant throughout the year, and especially so in spring anu
summer, whence in part the fertility of Japan, mainly due, however,
to careful cultivation.
* This plenty is in strong contrast with the famine, scarcity and distress,
frequently noted by the Jesuit missionaries, as prevailing during the civij
wars of their time ; yet, even at present, occasional seasons of scarcity seers
to occur.