With reference to language in general, a most patriotic Japanese once proved, to his own satisfaction, “the wickedness of foreign nations, not only in act but in speech,” and illustrated by the fact that the Europeans, for instance, put the verb before the noun, and said, “see the moon.” But the Japanese said “moon see,” because, “if the moon was not there first, you could not see it afterwards”! [Illustration: H. I. M. THE CROWN PRINCE] Some of the peculiarities of Japanese sentences are illustrated in the following: “The man whom I met yesterday went to Tōkyō by the nine o’clock train this morning,” if translated literally from Japanese, would read: “My yesterday-on met man-as-for, this morning’s ninth-hour’s train-by Tōkyō-to went.” In short, the Japanese language is an involved, complicated, impersonal, neutral, obscure, but withal a pretty, musical, logical, and polite tongue. Chamberlain says: “Japanese is probably—all things considered—the most difficult language on the face of the earth.” A Japanese book begins where an English book ends; it is read from top to bottom in lines running from right to left; and the “foot-notes” are at the top of the page, while the reader’s mark is inserted at the bottom. Books are always arranged on a shelf or elsewhere, with the first volume at the right hand, or in horizontal piles. The Japanese call our style of writing “crab-writing,” because it “goes backward” and across the page like a crawfish; and the individual just quoted, claimed to be able to judge of the hearts of foreigners by their writing, “which was crooked”! Inversion appears again in such expressions as “east-north,” “west-south,” instead of “northeast,” “southwest.” The address of a letter runs as follows: “America, United States, Illinois State, Chicago City, Hyde Park District, Washington Avenue, 0000 No., Smith, John, Mr.” In dates the order of year, month, day, is followed. The word for roof (_yane_) means literally “house-root,” because a Japanese house is constructed to fit the roof, which is made first. But, as words are only the expression of thought, this contrariety must be traced back to the thoughts and ideas of Japanese, who, in so many other things, seem to us as “topsy-turvy” as we seem to them.