The man had the tenacity of a
Bruce or a Columbus, with a pliability that was all his own.
He did not fight for what the world would call success; but
for "the wages of going on." Check him off in a dozen
directions, he would find another outlet and break forth. He
missed one vessel after another, and the main work still
halted; but so long as he had a single Japanese to enlighten
and prepare for the better future, he could still feel that
he was working for Japan. Now, he had scarce returned from
Nangasaki, when he was sought out by a new inquirer, the most
promising of all. This was a common soldier, of the Hemming
class, a dyer by birth, who had heard vaguely (1) of
Yoshida's movements, and had become filled with wonder as to
their design. This was a far different inquirer from Sakuma-
Shozan, or the councillors of the Daimio of Choshu. This was
no two-sworded gentleman, but the common stuff of the
country, born in low traditions and unimproved by books; and
yet that influence, that radiant persuasion that never failed
Yoshida in any circumstance of his short life, enchanted,
enthralled, and converted the common soldier, as it had done
already with the elegant and learned. The man instantly
burned up into a true enthusiasm; his mind had been only
waiting for a teacher; he grasped in a moment the profit of
these new ideas; he, too, would go to foreign, outlandish
parts, and bring back the knowledge that was to strengthen
and renew Japan; and in the meantime, that he might be the
better prepared, Yoshida set himself to teach, and he to
learn, the Chinese literature.
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