Hearn turns from outward Japan to its heart, from a murderer's confrontation with his victim's child at a Kumamoto railway station to a bugler who dies sounding the charge and a cholera-time village. Long essays on karma, pre-existence and ancestor-worship set Buddhist doctrine beside Herbert Spencer and Huxley, and an appendix gives three popular ballads sung by Matsue's outcast yama-no-mono.
Books mentioned in Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life (13)
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo: “Victor Hugo's Les Miserables becomes a tale of the Japanese civil war; and Enjolras a Japanese student.”
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “There have been a few rare exceptions, including the marked success of a literal translation of the Sorrows of Werther.”
The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins: “"The New Magdalen" becomes a Japanese girl who married an Eta. Victor Hugo's Les Miserables becomes a tale of the Japanese civil war; and Enjolras a Japanese student.”
The Principles of Psychology by Herbert Spencer: “Here Science, in accord with Buddhism, avows the Ego composite, and, like Buddhism, explains the psychical riddles of the present by the psychical experiences of the past. (1) Principles of Psychology: "The Feelings."”
The Principles of Biology by Herbert Spencer: “Now we find in Herbert Spencer's "Biology" a curious parallel for this idea. He explains the transmission of tendencies, and their variations, by a theory of polarities”
Physiological Aesthetics by Grant Allen: “How deeply-reaching into the life of the race some of these sensations are, such as the pleasure in odors and in colors, Grant Allen has most effectively suggested in his "Physiological Aesthetics," and in his charming treatise on the Color-Sense.”
The Colour-Sense by Grant Allen: “How deeply-reaching into the life of the race some of these sensations are, such as the pleasure in odors and in colors, Grant Allen has most effectively suggested in his "Physiological Aesthetics," and in his charming treatise on the Color-Sense.”
Evolution and Ethics by Thomas Henry Huxley: “The fact worthy of attention is that both recognize the same phenomena under different names. (1) Evolution and Ethics, p.61 (ed 1894).”
Sensation and the Sensiferous Organs by Thomas Henry Huxley: “Perhaps it may be regarded as illegitimate to wander from that position so tersely enunciated by Professor Huxley in his essay on "Sensation and the Sensiferous Organs:"”
The Book of the Great Decease: “"For twelve leagues, Ananda, around the Sala-Grove, there is no spot in size even as the pricking of the point of the tip of a hair, which is not pervaded by powerful spirits." --The Book Of the Great Decease.”
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan by Lafcadio Hearn: “See, also, for an account of their place in Shinto worship, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, vol. 1.”
Diamond Sutra: “Then taking up his first hammer, he recited the Kongo-Sutra(5); taking up his second, he recited the Kwannon-Sutra; taking up his third, he recited the Amida-Sutra,--because he feared those nails might be used for a wicked purpose.”
Amida Sutra: “Then taking up his first hammer, he recited the Kongo-Sutra(5); taking up his second, he recited the Kwannon-Sutra; taking up his third, he recited the Amida-Sutra,--because he feared those nails might be used for a wicked purpose.”