JAPAN
Nakaye's creed seems better suited to the genius of the Japanese samurai, and has unquestionably exercised wide influence. A long list of illustrious names attests the quality of its disciples, and if in its extreme applications it begets assassins such as those whose self-sacrificing steadfastness of purpose has enabled them to strike down some of the loftiest figures upon the stage of modern Japan's politics, its really representative product is a man of active mind, unflinching resolve, and virtuous life, who looks for no reward beyond the approval of his own conscience, and who never allows himself to be deflected by difficulties from the path of duty or high purpose. There are obvious defects in the system, but the integrity of heart that constitutes its ideal is a beautiful basis of ethics. Probably the prevalence of Nakaye's philosophy among educated Japanese offers a strong barrier to the spread of Christianity, for not only does it exclude the supernatural world upon which the Christian's thoughts are fixed, but also, while denying the existence of an alternative path to truth, it refuses to admit that any garment of forms and ceremonies can be made to fit all nations.[1] The ethical system introduced to his countrymen by Nakaye Tōju was unquestionably the most remarkable and important product of the Tokugawa era, and next to it ranks the revival of pure Shintō under the inspiration of Motoori and Hirata, to which
- ↑ See Appendix, note 17.
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