Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/39

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THE HOMOGENEOUSNESS OF ASIA.
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imperturbable deliberation. Nor will it be long before old memories are revived with a vigour and force which surprise, until it be remembered that "memory, imagination, old sentiments and associations, are more readily reached through the sense of smell than by almost any other channel."[1] There are few villages in China, or in Japan at the season for manuring the crops, which do not recall the supreme efforts in this direction of Baghdad or Bokhara. Finally, East and West Asia alike vie with one another in proclaiming the existence of that strange and mysterious law by which it appears to have been decreed that among the peoples of the West alone shall the sanctity of truth meet with respect or recognition.

Of this homogeneousness of atmosphere I have invariably been conscious when travelling in Eastern lands; and it was, perhaps, because a tolerably extended acquaintance with the men and manners of many Asian countries had taught me to accept it without question or reserve that certain symptoms of innovation struck forcibly upon my imagination as I