One illustration of their natural incapacity for business life is found in the fact that they had no idea of time. They did not understand the value, according to our standards, of the minutes, and were much given to what we call a “waste of time.” They were not accustomed to reckon time minute-ly, or to take into notice any period less than an hour, and considered it nine o’clock until it was ten o’clock. Moreover, the hour of the old “time-table” was 120 minutes long.[71] Besides, the Japanese are too dignified to be in a hurry; so that, if they miss one train, they do not fume and fret because they have to wait even several hours for the next train, but take it all calmly and patiently. And as clocks and watches are still somewhat of a luxury to the common people, we must not expect them to come up at once to our ideas of strict punctuality. But in school and office and business they are learning habits of promptness and coming to realize that “time is money”; so that recent years have shown a marked improvement. In the character of the Japanese are blended the two inharmonious elements of humility and conceit. Their language, customs, and manners are permeated with the idea of self-abasement, “in honor preferring one another”; but their minds are filled with excessive vanity, individual and national. They call their own country “Great Japan,” and have always had a strong faith in the reality of its greatness. The precocity and conceit of Japanese youth are very noticeable. A schoolboy of fourteen is always ready to express with confidence and positiveness his criticisms on Occidental and Oriental politics, philosophy, and religion. Young Japan, whether individually or collectively, is now in the Sophomore class of the World’s University. Japan is self-assertive, self-confident, and independent. But the marvellous achievements in the transformation of Japan during the past half-century are some excuse for the development of vanity; and the future, with its responsibilities, surely demands a measure of self-confidence.