d collect
such utterances from her wise men of old, and by them lead the nation
to an appreciation of the truths which they suggest and for which they
so fitly prepare the way. Scattered as they now are, and seldom read
by the people, they lie as precious gems imbedded in the hills, or as
seed safely stored. They can bear no harvest till they are sown in the
soil and allowed to spring up and grow.

The more I have pondered the implications of these and similar
passages, the more clear has it become that their authors were
essentially religious men. Their revolt from "religion" did not spring
from an irreligious motive, but from a deeper religious insight than
was prevalent among Buddhist believers. The irrational and often
immoral nature of many of the current religious expressions and
ceremonials and beliefs became obnoxious to the thinking classes, and
were accordingly rejected. The essence of religion, however, was not
rejected. They tore off the accumulated husks of externalism, but kept
intact the real kernel of religion.

The case for the religious nature of modern, educated Japan is not so
simple. Irreligious it certainly appears. Yet it, too, is not so
irreligious as perhaps the Occidental thinks. Though immoral, a
Japanese may still be a filial son and a loyal subject,
characteristics which have religious value in Japan, Old and New. It
would not be difficult to prove that many a modern Japanese writer who
proclaims his rejection of religion--calling all religion but
superstition and ceremony--is nevertheless a religious man at heart.
The religions he knows are too superstitious and senseless to satisfy
the demands of his intellectually developed religious nature. He does
not recognize that his rejection of what he calls "religion" is a real
manifestation of his religious nature rather than the reverse.

The widespread irreligious phenomena of New Japan are, therefore, not
difficult of explanation, when viewed in the light of two thousand
years of Japanese religious history. They cannot be attributed to a
deficient racial endowment of religious nature. They are a part of
nineteenth-century life by no means limited to Japan. If the
Anglo-Saxon race is not to be pronounced inherently irreligious,
despite the fact that irreligious phenomena and individuals are in
constant evidence the world over, neither can New Japan be pronounced
irreligious for the same reason. The irreligion now so rampant is a
recent phen