LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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CONVERSATION WITH MR. TANAKA. 127 Sunday. The snowstorm has prevented me to go to Washington to attend Rev. Mr. Rankin's church t.lll.s morning, so I went a nearest meeting-house I could find here, which was Methodist church. The service was very quiet and impressive. I was much pleased with the sermon. It was an extempore and simple sermon, yet very persuasive. It is very much different from the reading some cold and philosophi­cal discourse which is spun out from some intellectual head, but not from warm pious heart. Mr. Tanaka, the Commissioner of Education, re­quests me to move to Washington so that he might see me oftener. I think I will do so some time this week. TO MR. AND MRS. HARDY. GEORGETOWN, D. C., 3farch HI, 1872. I visited the Patent Office and Smithsonian Insti~ tution with the Japanese Commissioner of Education t~ay. Yery kind attention was given us by the offi­cers of the buildings, so we had better opportunity to see them than common visitors. After we got through visiting those places the under-officers returned to their boarding-places, but Mr. Tanaka invited me to dine with him. It was some time beyond my lunch hour, so I gladly accepted his invitation and dined with him at Arlington House. After the dinner I went to his room and spent nearly three hours in con~ versation on the subject o£ national education. I did not speak to him on the subject -of religion thus far, but I could no longer keep down my burning zeal. I gradually poured out my humble opinion on the na­tional education. It is impossible to write and give you all the idea that I spoke to him, but only in a

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