CHAPTER XXIII
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."