It is also asserted that the poor and the specially afflicted, such as lepers, were subjected to most inhuman treatment.

It is almost impossible to discover the kind or degree of ethical sway which any of the various creeds exercised over their respective adherents; but, from all that we know, we are quite prepared to acquiesce in the opinion of Mr. Oliphant, that so much of the nobler side of the Japanese character as results from a distinctly religious influence is to be ascribed, not to Buddhism, but to the oldest faith of the country, designated Kami-no-mitzi, i. e. "the way of the Kami," or gods. The later accounts of this "way" do not quite harmonise with those furnished by Thunberg, Kämpfer, and the letters of the Jesuits. For example, in the earlier representations Ten-sio-dai-sin, the solar deity, and the object of supreme veneration, is always spoken of as a divine man, or demi-god; while in the modern rendering of the Japanese mythology, the god has become a goddess. But whether god or goddess, Ten-sio-dai-sin is regarded at once as the founder of the Japanese monarchy, and the parent of the entire Japanese race. Ten-sio-dai-sin, however, has no self-subsisting being. Like the Phoenician, the Japonian genesis assumes an elemental chaos, and (to adopt the feminine hypothesis) the sun-goddess was the daughter of the last of the seven Dii Majores, who for countless æons ruled over "Nippon," but who had themselves descended, by mysterious generation, from a "speck, like a reed-bud, which arose out of the flux of the elements, and which gradually developed itself into a living soul." We cannot discover that this mythology, which goes "sounding on its dim and perilous way" beyond the era of the sun-goddess, has ever had any root in the popular conviction, or had any deeper origin than the fancy of a native poetaster. But the nucleus around which the goddess-legend is wound must have been some great fact in Japanese history. The mythus puts it grandly that when the Dai-sin hid herself in a cave, the whole universe was straightway wrapped in darkness, and would have remained under the power of night, had not the strains of a divine music charmed back the Great Light out of her retreat. What special illumination this heroine had imparted to her tribe is not recorded; but in Xavier's day (as in ours) the right of the spiritual emperor to the Japanese throne was said to arise from his being the lineal descendant of the eldest son of Ten-sio-dai-sin. If this allegation seem fabulous, it is nevertheless certain that the Romish missionaries found themselves in a country whose government, in name at least, was a theocracy; while, according to the native chronicles, which are pronounced trustworthy by able scholars, this theocracy took a distinct form as early as the seventh cen

tury before the Christian era. Konara, in whose reign Xavier arrived in Japan, was the 106th Mikado, or spiritual emperor, lineally sprung from Zyn-moo-ten-wo, who secured the supreme power for himself and his descendants 660 B.C.

It was not from the priests of this older faith that a new doctrine, whatever it might be, would encounter any thing like intellectual opposition. Those priests, with the title of Kamino-usi, i. e. Landlords or Stewards of the Gods, had sunk down, apparently, into somnolent ignorance; the result, to a certain extent, we should suppose, of their being the children of a priestly caste, and not merely the members of an order. After a fashion, they provided education for the youth of their sect, and, on stated occasions, would pour forth from their pulpits torrents of platitudes on the worth of pilgrimage, the virtue of abstinence from animal food, the evils of ceremonial uncleanness contracted by touching a dead body, the preservation of "pure fire," and the benefits which unfailingly are received by those who duly reverence the dead who have been raised to the rank of Kami (amounting now to some 2640), and the 492 deities who were gods by birth. A century afterwards, good and patient Dr. Kämpfer listened to one of these utterances in Nangasaki, and found it a sad weariness to soul and body.

It is not surprising that by the middle of the sixteenth century this "way" had ceased to attract the more thoughtful members of the Japanese community; indeed, a large proportion of these had avowedly cast aside the motley beliefs of their countrymen, and had adopted a species of Confucianism-technically designated Sju-to, i. e. the Way of the Philosopher. The Sjuto-ist did not think that it was incumbent on him "to go to a place of public worship for the sake of example," as sundry Anglo-Saxons are reported to do. The Japanese philosopher does not appear to have reckoned it supremely virtuous to present in his own person an example of hypocrisy. It is but in vague terms that we can speak of the theological conclusions of this philosophical brotherhood. In the days when Christianity was calling forth all that was deepest in the Japanese nature, they seem to have maintained a quiet aloofness. We do not, however, believe that the Sju-to-ists had, by means of a positive metaphysic, walled round the field of human consciousness against any incursion from a higher sphere of spiritual influence, inasmuch as they were "strongly suspected," says Kämpfer, "of secretly favouring the Christian religion; for which reason, after the said religion had been entirely abolished, they also were

The wives of this priesthood are themselves priestesses, to whom specific duties are assigned. They are the godmothers of all the female children born in their communion, giving them their names, and sprinkling them with water.

commanded to have each an idol, or the name of one of the gods worshipped in the country, put up in their houses in a conspicuous and honourable place, with a flower-pot and incensory before it." Like all the other descendants of the sun-goddess, the Sju-to-ist was insane on the point of honour, and if insulted or disgraced, would in a moment unsheathe his keen-edged blade and achieve for himself the "happy despatch,"* or disembowelment. But, apart from this participation in the national mania, our philosophers held most unexceptionable ethical maxims :they would live virtuously," " do justly by every man," carry about with them unfailing "courtesy," and maintain an inviolate "integrity of heart."

If these moralists secretly favoured Christianity, and if the Kami priesthood possessed neither the ability nor the cultivation which were requisite to offer battle, on any thing like equal terms, to Xavier, Buddhism numbered among its ecclesiastics not a few able and accomplished men. They were the Buddhist priests who confronted the Jesuits in the lists of controversy; and reports have come down to us-though unfortunately none by a native hand-of the logic-fence respectively displayed by the European and Japanese disputants.

According to Von Siebold, the Buddhist faith was first imported into "Nippon" in the sixth century of our era. Resisted by the populace on its introduction, this "foreign way" nevertheless steadily gained ground, until it had not only removed the popular antipathy, which, judging from the occasional fierceness of its manifestations, might have been deemed ineradicable, but had become, numerically, the dominant religion of the empire. Buddhism secured its triumphs not more by the eloquence and subtlety of the priesthood than by absorption of many of the specialities of the Kami creed, by submission to the reigning order, and conformity to the old national usages. Buddhist devotees might continue to perform the pilgrimage to Is-ye ;† and Buddhist priests, though possessing a pope, or most holy father, of their own, could yet, in form at least, acknowledge the Mikado as the greatest of visible mediators between the seen and the unseen. The reconciliation of contradictory opposites in a higher unity had been wondrously effected by the Buddhists in Japan. They would proclaim that Sákya was the Absolute All.

* Commodore Perry was informed by Yenoske, the interpreter, that, in consequence of the well-known visit of Captain Pellew to Nangasaki (1808), the governor of the town had really committed suicide in the usual mode; and that not only had the governor "despatched" himself, but that two other high officials and ten of a lower grade had followed his example. Mr. Tronson (Voyage of Barracouta, &c.) was told that the statement concerning the suicide of the governor of Nangasaki was without foundation. Shall we ever learn the truth of the story? † The birth and burial place of Ten-sio-dai-sin.

They could admit, in the person of the Mikado, an incarnation of the sun-goddess. They were duly to be found at the festival of Communion with the Dead. They maintained, again (as in one of the discussions with Xavier), that justice required that the lower animals alone should enjoy immortality; and they would be heard to declaim with such impassioned rhetoric on the bliss of Nirvanah, "that the congregation would rise as one man, and drown the preacher's voice with loud and long-continued cries of Annihilation, annihilation !""

It was, however, the large resemblance of Buddhism to Catholicism which chiefly struck the missionaries. In fact, the points of similarity were so many and so obvious, that Xavier and his coadjutors could only account for them by the hypothesis that they were a diabolic imitation of the heavenly original. The modern historian will not, we fear, look on this hypothesis with much favour, and would perhaps suggest that, just in the proportion in which Buddhist rites and forms resembled those of Catholicism, Catholicism itself had ceased to resemble Christianity. But from Xavier's point of view the ritual coincidence of the two systems could have no other origin than the one which he assigned; only from the arch-adversary of the church could have proceeded such institutions and practices as these:-the Japanese Buddhists had organised a celibate clergy, varying in rank, and subject to one supreme spiritual authority; they had founded monasteries and nunneries; and in their temples "there were altars with images on these altars, so similar to those seen in Catholic churches, that if they were mutually translated, it is doubtful whether either set of worshipers would discover the change."* On the altars they burned incense, they lighted sacrificial candles, and the officiating priests chanted the prayers in a foreign language, while they frequently made the sign of a St. Andrew's cross during the service. They struck a bell at stated periods of the day, and, on hearing the chime, labourer or traveller would kneel down and engage in prayer; they carried statues and relics in solemn procession; nay more, they baptised, they consecrated "wafers," and they performed "extreme" ceremonials, the priest wrapping the dying in holy paper, and duly depositing beside the corpse letters of credit which were to be honoured in the next world!†

Still more startling were some of the articles of the Buddhist theology, yet not more startling to the Catholic priesthood, from their partial likeness to Christian verities, than, as is now

* Narrative of American Expedition: New York, 1857.

†These documents were not ranked among the "imitations" of Catholicism, and the fathers were not backward in launching against them arrows of keenest ridicule.

well known, they were utterly foreign to the teaching of the great Indian leveller and Protestant, Buddha or Sákya,* himself. If ever reformer "thoroughly swept the house," that reformer was Sákya. But the spirit of worship he could not exorcise, for evermore the heart and flesh of humanity "cry out for a living God ;" and hence it was that Sákya's disciples, left by him in an orphan desolation of soul, gradually allowed the ascriptions of faith to gather around his memory and person, until at last the master came to be adored as the most high God. The following was a Sáky-ology to be met with in Japan: Sákya is the god of nature, and his name means "the unbeginning one." Yet Sákya came into space and time through the gateway of a human birth, being born of a virgin-mother, who died when the wondrous infant was but a few days old. Two winged dragons sprinkled him with water as he lay in his cradle; and when he had attained his third month, he leapt from the arms of his nurse, took seven firm steps towards the east, while a flower of exceeding beauty sprang up on each spot pressed by his holy foot. It was at the seventh foot-fall that Sákya suddenly paused, and, raising one hand to heaven, while he stretched the other over the earth, exclaimed, "I am sovereign lord of the universe." On reaching his nineteenth year, Sákya fled into the wilderness, and there, for six years, disciplined himself in all severest ways, in order that, by the merit of his endurances, mankind might obtain the remission of their sins, and the very lowest of the creaturehood too might reach some higher good. The six years of his temptations in the wilderness being ended, he showed himself in the crowded marts of India, and proclaimed his doctrine of baptism, fasting, and repentance. A thousand fervid disciples gathered around him, and then went forth to publish his new law throughout the kingdoms of the earth. Sákya announced a divine trinity, and on his death-bed imparted a decalogue to his followers. Five of the commandments were delivered orally, and were to be revealed only to the few; the other five were committed to writing, and were directed against lying, adultery, stealing, regretful self-worry, and murder.

According to the assertion of a late Dutch writer, M. Meylan, an Indian sect arrived in Japan as early as the middle of the first Christian century, and propagated the doctrine of a world-redemption through the son of a virgin, who died to expiate the sins of men, and rose again to procure for them a blissful resurrection. This assertion, though made in all good faith, is lacking, as far as we have been able to ascertain, in historical proof. It points, however, in the direction of an un

* In the Romish historians Buddha's name, Sákya or Çâkya-muni, is written Xaca.