The cruelty which marks this early stage shows that though moral codes
did not exist, the Buddhist and Confucian missionary were for Japan
necessities of the first order. Comparing the result to-day with the
state of things in the early times, one must award high praise to
Buddhism that it has made the Japanese gentle, and to Confucianism that
it has taught the proprieties of life, so that the polished Japanese
gentleman, as to courtesy, is in many respects the peer and at some
external points the superior, of his European confrere.
Another fact, made repulsively clear, about life in ancient Japan, is
that the high ideals of truth and honor, characteristic at least of the
Samurai of modern times, were utterly unknown in the days of the kami.
Treachery was common. Instances multiply on the pages of the Kojiki
where friend betrayed friend. The most sacred relations of life were
violated. Altogether these were the darkest ages of Japan, though, as
among the red men of America, there were not wanting many noble examples
of stoical endurance, of courage, and of power nobly exerted for the
benefit of others.
The Rise of Mikadoism.
Nevertheless we must not forget that the men of the early age of the
Kami no Michi conquered the aborigines by superior dogmas and fetiches,
as well as by superior weapons.
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