Buddhists are the imitators. In a land where Buddhism has been so
effective as to modify the diet of the nation, leading them in
obedience to the doctrines of Buddha, as has been stated, to give up
eating animal food, it is exceedingly strange that the people
apparently have no regard for the pain of living animals. Says the
editor of the _Mail_ in the article already quoted: "They will not
interfere to save a horse from the brutality of its driver, and they
will sit calmly in a jinrikisha while its drawer, with throbbing heart
and straining muscles, toils up a steep hill." How often have I seen
this sight! How the rider can endure it, I cannot understand, except
it be that revolt at cruelty and sympathy with suffering do not stir
within his heart. Of course, heartless individuals are not rare in the
West also. I am speaking here, however, not of single individuals, but
of general characteristics.

But a still more conspicuous evidence of Japanese deficiency of
sympathy is the use, until recently, of public torture. It was the
theory of Japanese jurisprudence that no man should be punished, even
though proved guilty by sufficient evidence, until he himself
confessed his guilt; consequently, on the flimsiest evidence, and even
on bare suspicion, he was tortured until the desired confession was
extracted. The cruelty of the methods employed, we of the nineteenth
century cannot appreciate. Some foreigner tells how the sight of
torture which he witnessed caused him to weep, while the Japanese
spectators stood by unmoved. The methods of execution were also
refined devices of torture. Townsend Harris says that crucifixion was
performed as follows: "The criminal is tied to a cross with his arms
and legs stretched apart as wide as possible; then a spear is thrust
through the body, entering just under the bottom of the shoulder blade
on the left side, and coming out on the right side, just by the
armpit. Another is then thrust through in a similar manner from the
right to the left side. The executioner endeavors to avoid the heart
in this operation. The spears are thrust through in this manner until
the criminal expires, but his sufferings are prolonged as much as
possible. Shinano told me that a few years ago a very strong man lived
until the eleventh spear had been thrust through him."

From these considerations, which might be supported by a multitude of
illustrations, we conclude that in the past there has certainly been