take not, this religious phenomenon of the
Orient does not differ in essence from the mystical religious
experience so common in the middle and subsequent ages in Europe, and
represented to-day by mystical Christians. Indeed, some of the finest
religious souls of Western lands have been mystics. Mystic
Christianity finds ready acceptance with certain of the Japanese.

The critical reader may perhaps admit, in view of the facts thus far
presented, that the ignorant millions have some degree of religious
feeling and yet, in view of the apparently irreligious life of the
educated, he may still feel that the religious nature of the race is
essentially shallow. He may feel that as soon as a Japanese is lifted
out of the superstitious beliefs of the past, he is freed from all
religious ideas and aspirations. I admit at once that there seems to
be some ground for such an assertion. Yet as I study the character of
the samurai of the Tokugawa period, who alone may be called the
irreligious of the olden times, I see good reasons for holding that,
though rejecting Buddhism, they were religious at heart. They
developed little or no religious ceremonial to replace that of
Buddhism, yet there were indications that the religious life still
remained. Intellectual and moral growth rendered it impossible for
earnest and honest men to accept the old religious expressions. They
revolted from religious forms, rather than from religion, and the
revolt resulted not in deeper superstitions and a poorer life, but in
a life richer in thought and noble endeavor. Muro Kyu-so, the
"Japanese Philosopher" to whom we have referred more than once,
rejected Buddhism, as we have already seen. The high quality of his
moral teachings we have also noticed. Yet he had no idea that he was
"religious." Those who reject Buddhism often use the term
"Shukyo-kusai," "stinking religion." For them religion is synonymous
with corrupt and superstitious Buddhism. To have told Muro that he was
religious would doubtless have offended him, but a few quotations
should satisfy anyone that at heart he was religious in the best sense
of the term.

"Consider all of you. Whence is fortune? From Heaven. Even the world
says, Fortune is in Heaven. So then there is no resource save prayer
to Heaven. Let us then ask: what does Heaven hate, and what does
Heaven love? It loves benevolence and hates malevolence. It loves
truth and hates untruth.... That which in Heaven begets all thi