JAPAN
to believe in gods that are invisible to human eyes, may we not answer that the existence of many things is unquestioningly accepted, though our eyes cannot discern their shapes? Do we not know that sweet odours exist, and soft sounds; that the air caresses our cheek, and that the wind blows over the sea; do we not know that fire is hot and water cold, though of the nature of heat and cold we know nothing? The principles that animate the universe are beyond the power of analysis, neither can they be fathomed by human intelligence. All statements founded on pretended explanations of them are to be rejected. All that man can think out and know is limited by the power of sight, of feeling, and of calculation. What transcends those powers lies beyond the potential range of thought."[1] There would not be much difficulty in fitting foreign analogies to this suggestive framework of Japanese conceptions.
Side by side with an attitude so humble towards the mysteries of nature, there was an almost fierce assertion of Japan's claim to be the repository of revealed truth. "Our country," says Hirata Atsutane, "owing to the facts that it was begotten by the two gods Izanagi and Izanami, that it was the birthplace of the Sun Goddess, and that it is ruled by her sublime descendants for ever and ever, as long as the universe shall endure, is infinitely superior to other countries,
- ↑ See Appendix, note 18.
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