So, we should never lose an opportunity of being good and that without mental reservation.

Gratitude is not the possession of every soul and he who does good may expect to receive ingratitude.

He will not suffer from it, if he has done good, not in the way a creditor does who intends to come on the very day appointed to claim his debt, but as a giver who fulfils his mission from which he is expecting a personal satisfaction, without thinking of any acknowledgment for what he has done.

If the debtor is filled with gratitude, the joy of being good is that much increased.

There is a species of common sense of a particularly noble quality that is called moral sense and which the Shogun defines thus: 

“The moral sense is the common sense of the soul; it is the superior power of reasoning which stands before us that we may be prevented from passively following our instincts; it is by its assistance that we succeed without too much difficulty in climbing the steep paths of duty.

“This sense discerns an important quality, which puts us on our guard against the danger of certain theories, whose brilliancy might seduce us.

“It is the moral sense which indicates to us the point of delimitation separating legitimate concessions from forbidden license.

“It allows us to go as far as the dangerous place where the understanding with conscience might become compromised and, by reasoning, proves to us that there would be serious danger in proceeding further.

“It is the moral sense which distinguishes civilized man from the brute; it is the regulator of the movements of the soul and the faithful indicator of the actions which depend on it.”

We must really pity those who are deprived of moral sense for they are the prey of all the impulses created in them by the brute-nature, which sleeps in the depths of each human creature.

The man whose moral sense is developed will live at peace with himself, for he will only know the evil of doubt when he realizes the satisfaction of having conquered it.

Moral sense, like common sense, is formed by reasoning and is fostered by the practise of constant application.

It is the property of those who avoid evil, as others avoid the spatter of mud, through horror of the stains which result from it.

Those who do not have this apprehension flounder about, cover themselves with mud, sink in it and finally are swallowed up.

Yoritomo again takes up the defense of common sense, with reference to the arts.

“Can one imagine,” he says, “a painter conceiving a picture and grouping his figures in such a way as to violate the rules of common sense?

“We should be doomed, if this were true, to see men as tall as oak-trees and houses resembling children’s toy constructions, placed without reference to equilibrium among green or pink animals, whose legs had queer shapes.