Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/212

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196
JAPANESE LITERATURE

seen were already seen or heard by me at some past time—when, I cannot tell."

"Things which are in Bad Taste

Too much furniture in one's living room.
Too many pens in a stand.
Too many Buddhas in a private shrine.
Too many rocks, trees, and herbs in a garden.
Too many children in a house.
Too many words when men meet.
Too many books in a book-case there can never be, nor too much litter in a dust-heap."


"It is not only when we look at the moon or flowers with our eyes that they give us pleasure. On a spring day, though we do not leave our house; on a moonlight night, though we remain in our chamber, the mere thought of them is exceedingly cheering and delightful."

If Wordsworth had been a Japanese scholar, he might have been charged with plagiarising from this passage his

"inward eye
That is the bliss of solitude."