Attack was also at times a form of repression.
It was also a lesson in obedience and a reminder not to misunderstand individual rights.
In later times, common sense served to make the advantages of harmony appreciated.
It directed the descendants of peoples exclusively warlike toward the secret place where science unfolds itself to the gaze of the vulgar; then it taught them to provide for their existence by working.
It has demonstrated to them the necessity of reflection, by inciting them to model their present course of life on the lessons which come from the past.
It has given them the means to evoke it easily and effectively.
It has injected into their veins the calmness which permits them to draw just conclusions and to adopt toward preceding reasonings the attitude of absolute neutrality, without which all former presentiments are marred by error.
Each epoch was, for common sense, an opportunity to manifest itself differently.
At the moment when poetry was highly honored, it would have been unreasonable to have ignored it, for the bards excited great enthusiasm by their songs which gave birth to heroes.
And now, imbued with the principles which in his day might be taken to represent what we to-day call advanced ideas, Yoritomo continues: