Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things

In an essay contributed to the Atlantic Monthly in February 1903 by Paul Elmer More Paul Elmer More (1864–1937) was a prominent American literary critic and Christian apologist., the secret of Mr. Hearn’s magic is said to lie in the fact that in his art is found "the meeting of three ways." To the religious instinct of India—Buddhism in particular—which history has grafted original: "engrafted" onto the aesthetic original: "æsthetic" sense of Japan, Mr. Hearn brings the interpreting spirit of Western original: "occidental" science. These three traditions are fused by the unique perspective of his mind into one rich and original original: "novel" combination—a combination so rare that it introduced a previously unknown psychological sensation into literature.

Mr. More’s essay received high praise from Mr. Hearn, who expressed his recognition and gratitude for it. If it were possible to reprint it here, it would provide a most suggestive introduction to these new stories of old Japan. As Mr. More has said, their substance is "so strangely mingled together out of the austere dreams of India, the subtle beauty of Japan, and the relentless science of Europe."