e which aims at appealing to all mankind. Its whole purpose, as it has
been developed by modern statesmen, is to glorify Japan and the Mikado.

Professor Chamberlain points out how little reverence there was for the
Mikado until some time after the Restoration:--

The sober fact is that no nation probably has ever treated its
sovereigns more cavalierly than the Japanese have done, from the
beginning of authentic history down to within the memory of
living men. Emperors have been deposed, emperors have been
assassinated; for centuries every succession to the throne was
the signal for intrigues and sanguinary broils. Emperors have
been exiled; some have been murdered in exile.... For long
centuries the Government was in the hands of Mayors of the
Palace, who substituted one infant sovereign for another,
generally forcing each to abdicate as he approached man's estate.
At one period, these Mayors of the Palace left the Descendant of
the Sun in such distress that His Imperial Majesty and the
Imperial Princes were obliged to gain a livelihood by selling
their autographs! Nor did any great party in the State protest
against this condition of affairs. Even in the present reign
(that of Meiji)--the most glorious in Japanese history--there
have been two rebellions, during one of which a rival Emperor was
set up in one part of the country, and a Republic proclaimed in
another.

This last sentence, though it states sober historical fact, is scarcely
credible to those who only know twentieth-century Japan. The spread of
superstition has gone _pari passu_ with the spread of education, and a
revolt against the Mikado is now unthinkable. Time and again, in the
midst of political strife, the Mikado has been induced to intervene, and
instantly the hottest combatants have submitted abjectly. Although there
is a Diet, the Mikado is an absolute ruler--as absolute as any sovereign
ever has been.

The civilization of Japan, before the Restoration, came from China.
Religion, art, writing, philosophy and ethics, everything was copied
from Chinese models. Japanese history begins in the fifth century A.D.,
whereas Chinese history goes back to about 2,000 B.C., or at any rate to
somewhere in the second millennium B.C. This was galling to Japanese
pride, so an early history was invented long ago, like the theory that
the Romans were descended from AE