In its
higher forms, "Shint[=o] is simply a cultured and intellectual atheism;
in its lower forms it is blind obedience to governmental and priestly
dictates." "Shint[=o]," says Mr. Ernest Satow, "as expounded by Motooeri
is nothing more than an engine for reducing the people to a condition of
mental slavery." Japan being a country of very striking natural
phenomena, the very soil and air lend themselves to support in the
native mind this system of worship of heroes and of the forces of
nature. In spite, however, of the conservative power of the ancestral
influences, the patriotic incentives and the easy morals of Shint[=o]
under which lying and licentiousness shelter themselves, it is doubtful
whether with the pressure of Buddhism, and the spread of popular
education and Christianity, Shint[=o] can retain its hold upon the
Japanese people. Yet although this is our opinion, it is but fair, and
it is our duty, to judge every religion by its ideals and not by its
failings. The ideal of Shint[=o] is to make people pure and clean in all
their personal and household arrangements; it is to help them to live
simply, honestly and with mutual good will; it is to make the Japanese
love their country, honor their imperial house and obey their emperor.
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