Prate as we may of the triumphant march of Anglo-Saxon liberty, rarely has it received impetus from the masses.  Was it not rather the work of the squires and gentlemen?  Very truly does M. Taine say, “These three syllables, as used across the channel, summarize the history of English society.”  Democracy may make self-confident retorts to such a statement and fling back the question—­“When Adam delved and Eve span, where then was the gentleman?” All the more pity that a gentleman was not present in Eden!  The first parents missed him sorely and paid a high price for his absence.  Had he been there, not only would the garden have been more tastefully dressed, but they would have learned without painful experience that disobedience to Jehovah was disloyalty and dishonor, treason and rebellion.

What Japan was she owed to the samurai.  They were not only the flower of the nation but its root as well.  All the gracious gifts of Heaven flowed through them.  Though they kept themselves socially aloof from the populace, they set a moral standard for them and guided them by their example.  I admit Bushido had its esoteric and exoteric teachings; these were eudemonistic, looking after the welfare and happiness of the commonalty, while those were aretaic, emphasizing the practice of virtues for their own sake.

In the most chivalrous days of Europe, Knights formed numerically but a small fraction of the population, but, as Emerson says—­“In English Literature half the drama and all the novels, from Sir Philip Sidney to Sir Walter Scott, paint this figure (gentleman).”  Write in place of Sidney and Scott, Chikamatsu and Bakin, and you have in a nutshell the main features of the literary history of Japan.

The innumerable avenues of popular amusement and instruction—­the theatres, the story-teller’s booths, the preacher’s dais, the musical recitations, the novels—­have taken for their chief theme the stories of the samurai.  The peasants round the open fire in their huts never tire of repeating the achievements of Yoshitsune and his faithful retainer Benkei, or of the two brave Soga brothers; the dusky urchins listen with gaping mouths until the last stick burns out and the fire dies in its embers, still leaving their hearts aglow with the tale that is told.  The clerks and the shop-boys, after their day’s work is over and the amado[27] of the store are closed, gather together to relate the story of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi far into the night, until slumber overtakes their weary eyes and transports them from the drudgery of the counter to the exploits of the field.  The very babe just beginning to toddle is taught to lisp the adventures of Momotaro, the daring conqueror of ogre-land.  Even girls are so imbued with the love of knightly deeds and virtues that, like Desdemona, they would seriously incline to devour with greedy ear the romance of the samurai.

[Footnote 27:  Outside shutters.]