Governor:  “It may be difficult for all people to come to the same point and agree altogether.  We must solve a great problem by ourselves.”

Myself:  “We have opportunities of doing some good works in this life.  Therefore we must go on till we die and we must be content at being able to do something good, directly or indirectly, in however small measure.  ‘Earth is not as thou ne’er hadst been,’ wrote an Englishwoman poet of great scientific ability[171] who died while yet a young woman.”

Governor:  “I think of Napoleon dying tormented on St. Helena, and the peaceful attitude of Socrates though being poisoned by enemies.  But Socrates had done many good things, yet he was poisoned.”

Myself:  “Socrates had done what he could for his country and the world, yet by his brave death he could add one thing more."[172]

The Governor said that he “got comfort from our talk,” but this did not perfectly reassure me.  The next evening, however, I found a parboiled Governor alone in the bath and he greeted me very warmly.  Without our interpreter we could say nothing that mattered, but we were glad of this further meeting in the friendly hot water.  It seemed that our midnight talk would be memorable to both of us.

It is convenient to copy out here the following dicta on religion and morals which were delivered to me at various times during my journeys: 

A.  “The weakest deterrent influence among us is, ‘It is wrong.’  A stronger deterrent influence is, ‘Heaven will punish you.’  The strongest deterrent influence of all is, ’Everybody will laugh at you.’”

B.  “In Japan all religions have been turned into sentiment or aestheticism.”

C. (after speaking appreciatively of the ideas animating many Japanese Christians):  “All the same I do not feel quite safe about trusting the future of Japan to those people.”

D.  “We Japanese have never been spiritually gifted.  We are neither meditative and reflective like the Hindus nor individualistic like the Anglo-Saxons.  Nevertheless, like all mankind we have spiritual yearnings.  They will be best stirred by impulses from without.”

E. (in answer to my enquiry whether a Quakerism which compromised on war, as John Brights male descendants had done, might not gain many adherents in Japan):  “Other sects may have a smaller ultimate chance than Quakerism.  One mistake made by the Quakers was in going to work first among the poorer classes.  The Quakers ought to have begun with the intellectual classes, for every movement in Japan is from the top.”

F.  “You will notice what a number of the gods of Japan are deified men.  There is a good side to the earth earthy, but many Japanese seem unable to worship anything higher than human beings.  The readiest key to the religious feeling of the Japanese is the religious life of the Greeks.  The more I study the Greeks the more I see our resemblance to them in many ways, in all ways, perhaps, except two, our lack of philosophy and our lack of physical comeliness.”