“‘Nonsense!’ cried out the second; ’this vase is a pot which at that time served as a receptacle for keeping spices.’

“‘Not so!’ insisted the third, ’it is an urn of antiquated design used for receiving tears; that is all.’

“These three serious men were certainly sincere in giving explanations which each one of them declared decisive.  They exprest opinions which they believed implicitly and which their respective natures directed irresistibly toward their peculiar bents of mind.

“Judgment, in order to be free from all which is not common sense, ought then to put aside all personal predilections, all desire to form a conclusion to humor our inclinations.

“Absolute impartiality of judgment is one of the rarest gifts and at the same time is the noblest quality which we can possess.”

We should then conclude, with the Shogun, that common sense aids in the production of noble aspirations, and is not concerned only with that which relates to materiality, as so many people would have us understand.

The Nippon philosopher teaches us also the part which he assigns to the habitual practise of goodness.

“We are too easily persuaded,” he says, “that goodness, like beauty, is a gift of birth.

“It is time to destroy an error rooted in our minds for too many centuries.

“Goodness is acquired by reasoning and logic, as are so many other qualities, and it is common sense which governs its formation.

“Have we ever reflected over the sum total of annoyances that people, who are essentially wicked, add every day to those imposed upon them by circumstances?

“Are we capable of appreciating the joys of life when impatience makes the nerves vibrate or when anger brandishes its torch in the bends and turns of the brain?

“People who lack goodness are the first to be punished for their defect.  Serenity is unknown to them and they live in perpetual agitation, caused by the irritation which they experience on the slightest provocation.”

Common sense indicates then in an irrefutable way that there is every advantage in being good.

And Yoritomo proves it to us, by using his favorite syllogism: 

“Happiness,” he says, “is above all a combination of harmony and absence of sorrow.

“Wickedness, by inspiring us with discontent and anger, disturbs this harmony.

“We must, therefore, banish wickedness, that we may cultivate goodness, which is the creator of harmony.”

Continuing still further the same argument, he adds: 

“Common sense would have the tendency even to make us promise to be good, so as to satisfy our own egotism.

“Goodness creates smiles; to sow happiness around one, is a way of having neither eyes nor heart offended by the sight of people in tears; it is the eliciting of an agreeable joy, whose rays will shed a golden light over our life; is it not more pleasing to hear the ring of laughter than to listen to painful sobs?”