To several American missionaries, who despite their trying labors have had the time and the taste to study critically the religions of Japan, I owe thanks and appreciation. With rare acuteness and learning, Rev. Dr. George Wm. Knox has opened on its philosophical, and Rev. Dr. J.H. DeForest on its practical side, the subject of Japanese Confucianism. By his lexicographical work, Dr. J.C. Hepburn has made debtors to him both the native and the alien. To our knowledge of Buddhism in Japan, Dr. J.C. Berry and Rev. J.L. Atkinson have made noteworthy contributions. I have been content to quote as authorities and illustrations, the names of those who have thus wrought on the soil, rather than of those, who, even though world-famous, have been but slightly familiar with the ethnic and the imported faith of Japan. The profound misunderstandings of Buddhism, which some very eminent men of Europe have shown in their writings, form one of the literary curiosities of the world.
In setting forth these Morse lectures, I have purposely robbed my pages of all appearance of erudition, by using as few uncouth words as possible, by breaking up the matter into paragraphs of moderate length, by liberally introducing subject-headings in italics, and by relegating all notes to the appendix. Since writing the lectures, and even while reading the final proofs, I have ransacked my library to find as many references, notes, illustrations and authorities as possible, for the benefit of the general student. I have purposely avoided recondite and inaccessible books and have named those easily obtainable from American or European publishers, or from Messrs. Kelly & Walsh, of Yokohama, Japan. In using oriental words I have followed, in the main, the spelling of the Century Dictionary. The Japanese names are expressed according to that uniform system of transliteration used by Hepburn, Satow and other standard writers, wherein consonants have the same general value as in English (except that initial g is always hard), while the vowels are pronounced as in Italian. Double vowels must be pronounced double, as in Méiji (mā-ē-jē); those which are long are marked, as in ō or ū; i before o or u is short. Most of the important Japanese, as well as Sanskrit and Chinese, terms used, are duly expressed and defined in the Century Dictionary.
I wish also to thank especially my friends, Riu Watanabe, Ph.D., of Cornell University, and William Nelson Noble, Esq., of Ithaca. The former kindly assisted me with criticisms and suggestions, while to the latter, who has taken time to read all the proofs, I am grateful for considerable improvement in the English form of the sentences.
In closing, I trust that whatever charges may be brought against me by competent critics, lack of sympathy will not be one. I write in sight of beautiful Lake Cayuga, on the fertile and sloping shores of which in old time the Iroquois Indian confessed the mysteries of life. Having planted his corn, he made his pregnant squaw walk round the seed-bed in hope of receiving from the Source of life increased blessing and sustenance for body and mind. Between such a truly religious act of the savage, and that of the Christian sage, Joseph Henry, who uncovered his head while investigating electro-magnetism to "ask God a question," or that of Samuel F.B. Morse, who sent as his first telegraphic message "What hath God wrought," I see no essential difference. All three were acts of faith and acknowledgment of a power greater than man. Religion is one, though religions are many. As Principal Fairbairn, my honored predecessor in the Morse lectureship, says: "What we call superstition of the savage is not superstition in him. Superstition is the perpetuation of a low form of belief along with a higher knowledge.... Between fetichism and Christian faith there is a great distance, but a great affinity—the recognition of a supra-sensible life."
"For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God.... The creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God."
W.E.G.
ITHACA, N.Y., October 27, 1894.