JAPAN
danced before the cave of the Sun Deity, and in the oracle-uttering mood of the Empress Jingo. Sometimes this idea that the spirits of the deified may be induced to obey the summons of their earthly relatives is played with by mercenary charlatans, as was and is the case in Europe; sometimes it appears to be capable of exciting a nervous ecstasy during which the body becomes insensible to pain. It is unnecessary to dwell upon these things. They have their counterpart everywhere, and can scarcely be regarded as distinctive of Shintō.
A contention often advanced is that Shintō has no code of morals and does not concern itself about a future state. As to the former argument, it may be pointed out that the intuitive system of morality receives its fullest recognition when ethical sanctions are not coded. If man derives the first principles of his duties from intuition; if he be so constituted that the notion of right carries with it a sense of obligation, then a schedule of rules and regulations for the direction of every-day conduct becomes not only superfluous but illogical. That was the moral basis of Shintō. If the feet were kept steadfast in the path of truth, the guardianship of the Gods was assured even without praying for it.[1] The all-creator took care, when he fashioned man, that a knowledge of good and evil should be an integral part of the structure. Unless such a knowledge be
- ↑ See Appendix, note 28.
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