If they are forced to enter there temporarily, in order to pursue the adversary, who has hidden himself there, they will leave these paths as soon as necessity does not force them to remain there longer and with delight regain the broad road of rectitude.
A few pages further on we find a reflection which the Shogun, always faithful to his principles of high morality, specially addresses to those who make a profession of humility.
"Obedience," he says, "ought to be considered as a means; but, for the one who wishes to succeed, in no sense can it be honored as a virtue.
"If it be a question of submission to law, that is nothing else but the performance of a strict duty; this is a kind of compact which the man of common sense concludes with society, to which he promises his support for the maintenance of a protection from which he will be the first to benefit.
"This obedience might be set down as selfishness were it not endorsed by common sense.
"There are people, it is true, who, even altho wishing to support their neighbor when called upon to do so by the law, seek to evade this duty if left to themselves.
"These are pirates who have broken completely not only with the spirit of equity, but also with simple common sense.
"It is always foolish to set the example of insubordination, for, if it were followed, it would not be long before general disorder would appear.
"Some men were sitting one day on the edge of an inlet and were trying with a net to catch fish, whose playful movements the men were following through the limpid water.
"According to their character, their perseverance, their cleverness, and the ingenuity of the means employed, they caught a proportionate number of fish; but those who caught the least had one or two.