A MIDNIGHT TALK

True religion is a relation, accordant with reason and knowledge, which man establishes with the infinite life surrounding him, and it is such as binds his life to that infinity, and guides his conduct.—Tolstoy

One of the most instructive experiences I had during my rural journeys occurred one night when I was staying at a country inn. At a late hour I was told that the Governor of the prefecture was in a room overhead. I had called on him a few days before in his prefectural capital. He was a large daimyo-like figure, dignified and courteous, but seemingly impenetrable. There was no depth in our talk. His aloof and uncommunicative manner was deterring, but by this time I had learnt the elementary lesson of unending patience and freedom from hasty judgment that is the first step to an advance in knowledge of another race. I felt that I should like to know more about the man inside this Excellency. No one had told me anything of his life.

Now that he was in the same inn with me it was Japanese good manners to pay him a visit. So I went upstairs with my travelling companion, telling him on the way that we should not remain more than five minutes. We were wearing our bath kimonos. The Governor was also at his ease in one of these garments. He was kneeling at a low table reading. We knelt at the other side, spoke on general topics, asked one or two questions and began to take our leave. On this the Governor said that he would like very much to ask me in turn some questions. We spoke together until one in the morning, his Excellency continually expressing his unwillingness for us to go. He spoke rapidly and with such earnestness that I was balked of understanding what he said sentence by sentence. The next day my companion wrote out a summary of what the Governor had said and I had tried to say in reply. As a brief report of a talk of three hours' duration it is plainly imperfect. The artless account is of some interest, however, because it furnishes an impression at once of an engaging simplicity and sincerity in the Japanese character and of the pressure of Western ideas.

Governor: "There have died lately my mother, my wife and one of my daughters. Some of my officials come to me and ask what consolation I am getting. What do I feel at first when such things happen? Am I content under such misfortune? I feel that I should be happy if I could believe something and tell it to them. I am tormented by the conflict of my scientific and religious feelings. How is the relation of science and religion in your mind? Are you tormented or are you composed and peaceful even when meeting such misfortune as mine?"

Myself: "It is certain that it is not well to torment ourselves, for grief is loss.[ [169]] As to science, it did not drive away religion. Science seeks after truth in all matters, but there are truths which are to be searched out through our feeling, conscience and instinct. Religion has to do with these truths. It is quite good for religion if all superstition, dogma and ignorance are cleared away by science. Concerning a future life, we are hampered in our thinking by our traditions, prejudices, deep ignorance and poor mental strength and training; and much energy is needed in the world for present service. Some have thought of an immortality which is that a man's sincere influence, his unselfish manifestations, those things which are the essence of a man's existence, will live on; in other words, that the best of a life is immortal; but not in the way of ghosts. As to the memory, example and achievement of the dead it is sure that we are aided by them."

Governor: "If we sacrifice ourselves for the public good it is the best that we can do in this world. But are you composed at the sad news concerning the Lusitania? If you think that event was directed by divine destiny then you can be composed and may not complain."

Myself: "Such an accident may only be by divine destiny in the sense that everything in this world, the saddest misery, the greatest misfortunes, are suffered in the development of mankind, so that even this War is unquestionably for the final betterment of the whole world."

Governor: "Please say what is God."

Myself: "'If I could tell you what God is, I should be God myself.' Many of my own countrymen have been taught that God is 'Spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in His Being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.' There are those who would say that God may be the total developing or bettering energy, and that we are all part of God. Some people have a more personal conception of God, the sum of all goodness. May not his Excellency consider the peasant's idea of a Governor of a prefecture? The peasant's idea of a Governor is greater than that of any particular Governor. His Excellency's good works are not done by himself alone, but by all the good energies inherent in the Governorship. Those energies are unseen but real. The Japanese army and navy triumphed by the virtue of the Emperor—by the virtue of ideas."

Governor: "The thought of Sensei[[170]] is quite Oriental."

Myself: "All religions are from Asia."

Governor: "This world where stars move, flowers blossom and decay, spring and autumn come, and people are born and die is too full of mystery, but I can feel some intelligence working through it though incomprehensible."

Myself: "Alas, people will try to explain that incomprehensibleness."

Governor: "What you have said is what I have been accepting to this day. It satisfies my reason, but I feel in my heart something lacking. I seek for a warmer interpretation of the world, for a more heartfelt relation with cosmos. Several of my officials themselves lost their dear children recently. They cannot with heart and brain accept their loss, and they ask my direction."

Myself: "In the New Testament one thing is taught, God is Love. We can be composed if we feel that God is love. The Gospel of John is the most tender story in the world."

Governor: "It may be difficult for all people to come to the same point and agree altogether. We must solve a great problem by ourselves."

Myself: "We have opportunities of doing some good works in this life. Therefore we must go on till we die and we must be content at being able to do something good, directly or indirectly, in however small measure. 'Earth is not as thou ne'er hadst been,' wrote an Englishwoman poet of great scientific ability [[171]] who died while yet a young woman."

Governor: "I think of Napoleon dying tormented on St. Helena, and the peaceful attitude of Socrates though being poisoned by enemies. But Socrates had done many good things, yet he was poisoned."

Myself: "Socrates had done what he could for his country and the world, yet by his brave death he could add one thing more."[[172]]

The Governor said that he "got comfort from our talk," but this did not perfectly reassure me. The next evening, however, I found a parboiled Governor alone in the bath and he greeted me very warmly. Without our interpreter we could say nothing that mattered, but we were glad of this further meeting in the friendly hot water. It seemed that our midnight talk would be memorable to both of us.

It is convenient to copy out here the following dicta on religion and morals which were delivered to me at various times during my journeys:

A. "The weakest deterrent influence among us is, 'It is wrong.' A stronger deterrent influence is, 'Heaven will punish you.' The strongest deterrent influence of all is, 'Everybody will laugh at you.'"

B. "In Japan all religions have been turned into sentiment or æstheticism."

C. (after speaking appreciatively of the ideas animating many Japanese Christians): "All the same I do not feel quite safe about trusting the future of Japan to those people."

D. "We Japanese have never been spiritually gifted. We are neither meditative and reflective like the Hindus nor individualistic like the Anglo-Saxons. Nevertheless, like all mankind we have spiritual yearnings. They will be best stirred by impulses from without."

E. (in answer to my enquiry whether a Quakerism which compromised on war, as John Brights male descendants had done, might not gain many adherents in Japan): "Other sects may have a smaller ultimate chance than Quakerism. One mistake made by the Quakers was in going to work first among the poorer classes. The Quakers ought to have begun with the intellectual classes, for every movement in Japan is from the top."

F. "You will notice what a number of the gods of Japan are deified men. There is a good side to the earth earthy, but many Japanese seem unable to worship anything higher than human beings. The readiest key to the religious feeling of the Japanese is the religious life of the Greeks. The more I study the Greeks the more I see our resemblance to them in many ways, in all ways, perhaps, except two, our lack of philosophy and our lack of physical comeliness."

G. "As to uncomeliness there are several Japanese types. The refined type is surely attractive. If many Japanese noses seem to be too short, foreigners' noses seem to us to be too long. The results of intermarriage between Western people and Japanese who are of equal social and educational status and of good physique should be closely watched."

H. "In our schools an hour or two a week is reserved for culture, but the true spirit of culture is lacking. The Imperial Rescript on education is very good moral doctrine, but the real life's aim of many of us is to be well off, to have an automobile, to become a Baron or to extend the Empire. We do not ask ourselves, 'For what reason?'"

I. "I conduct certain classes which the clerks of my bank must attend. The teaching I give is based on Confucian, Christian and Buddhist principles. I try to make the young men more manful. I constantly urge upon them that 'you must be a man before you can be a clerk.'"

J. (a septuagenarian ex-daimyo): "Confucianism is the basis of my life, but twice a month I serve at my Shinto shrine and I conduct a Buddhist service in my house morning and evening. It is necessary to make the profession that Buddha saves us. I do not believe in paradise. It is paradise if when I die I have a peaceful mind due to a feeling that I have done my duty in life and that my sons are not bad men. Unless I am peaceful on my deathbed I cannot perish but must struggle on. Therefore my sons must be good. I myself strove to be filial and I have always said to my sons, 'Fathers may not be fathers but sons must be sons.'"

K. (the preceding speaker's son expressing his opinion on another occasion): "My father as a Confucian is kind to people negatively. We want to be kind positively because it is right to be kind. As to filial obedience, even fathers may err; we are righteous if we are right. My father is a Shintoist because it is our national custom. He wants to respect his ancestors in a wide sense and he desires that Japan, his family and his crops may be protected."

L. "I wish foreigners had a juster idea about 'idols'. There is a difference between frequenters of the temples believing the figures to be holy and believing them to be gods. Every morning my mother serves before her shrine of Buddha but she does not believe our Buddha to be God. She would not soil or irreverently handle our Buddha, but it is only holy as a symbol, as an image of a holy being. My mother has said to me, 'Buddha is our father. He looks after us always; I cannot but thank him. If there be after life Buddha will lead me to Paradise. There is no reason to beg a favour.' My mother is composed and peaceful. All through her life she has met calamities and troubles serenely. I admire her very much. She is a good example of how Buddha's influence makes one peaceful and spiritual. But such religious experience may not be grasped from the outside by foreigners."

M. "When I am in a temple or at a shrine I realise its value in concentrating attention. The daily domestic service before the shrine in the house also ensures some religious life daily. Many of my countrymen no doubt regard religion as superstition; they know little of spiritual life. For some of them patriotism or humanitarian sentiments or eagerness to seek after scientific truth takes the place of religion. Most men think that they can never comprehend the cosmos and say, 'We may believe only what we can prove. Let us follow not after preachers but after truth.' I believe with your Western philosophers who say that the cosmos is not perfect but that it is moving towards perfection. Many think that this War shows that the cosmos is not perfect. Spiritual life is living according to one's purest consciousness. But what is of first importance is our actions. It is not enough merely to strive after moral development. One must strive after economic and social development. Some religious people think only of the spiritual life and have no sympathy with economics. The labours of such religious people must be of small value."

In later Chapters the views of other thoughtful Japanese are noted down as they were communicated to me.