Appearances

Shipboard hymns on the Red Sea prompt G. Lowes Dickinson to question the social habits English travellers carry abroad. These notes of travel move through India, China and Japan before turning to America, using scenes and encounters to examine how societies understand themselves and one another. Dickinson presents his impressions as a personal contribution to understanding between East and West, with an explicit admission that his observations offer only a partial view.

The opening conversation connects religious routine with imperial authority and the distance between rulers and ruled. A later essay considers devotion to Japan's emperor, comparing it with British monarchy and asking how inherited beliefs respond to Western science and political thought. The American pieces introduce concerns about democracy, wealth and the labour movement. Readers interested in travel essays with a philosophical bent will find descriptions of places joined to candid arguments about culture, power and social custom.