as impious innovation, but usually brought upon the daring innovator the ban of the censor, imprisonment, banishment, or death by enforced suicide.[10] In Yedo, the centre of Chinese learning, and in other parts of the country, there were, indeed, thinkers whose philosophy did not always tally with what was taught by the orthodox,[11] but as a rule even when these men escaped the ban of the censor, or the sword of the executioner, they were but us voices crying in the wilderness.  The great mass of the gentry was orthodox, according to the standards of the Seido College, while the common people remained faithful to Buddhism.  In the conduct of daily life they followed the precepts which had for centuries been taught them by their fathers.

Philosophical Confucianism the Religion of the Samurai.

What were the features of this modern Confucian philosophy, which the Japanese Samurai exalted to a religion?[12] We say philosophy and religion, because while the teachings of the great sage lay at the bottom of the system, yet it is not true since the early seventeenth century, that the thinking men of Japan have been satisfied with only the original simple ethical rules of the ancient master.  Though they have craved a richer mental pabulum, yet they have enjoyed less the study of the original text, than acquaintance with the commentaries and communion with the great philosophical exponents, of the master.  What, then, we ask, are the features of the developed philosophy, which, imported from China, served the Japanese Samurai not only as morals but for such religion as he possessed or professed?

We answer:  The system was not agnostic, as many modern and western writers assert that it is, and as Confucius, transmitting and probably modifying the old religion, had made the body of his teachings to be.  Agnostic, indeed, in regard to many things wherein a Christian has faith, modern Confucianism, besides being bitterly polemic and hostile to Buddhism, is pantheistic.

Certain it is that during the revival of Pure Shint[=o] in the eighteenth century, the scholars of the Shint[=o] school, and those of its great rival, the Chinese, agreed in making loyalty[13] take the place of filial duty in the Confucian system.  To serve the cause of the Emperor became the most essential duty to those with cultivated minds.  The newer Chinese philosophy mightily influenced the historians, Rai Sanyo and those of the Mito school, whose works, now classic, really began the revolution of 1868.  By forming and setting in motion the public opinion, which finally overthrew the Sh[=o]gun and feudalism, restored the Emperor to supreme power, and unified the nation, they helped, with modern ideas, to make the New Japan of our day.  The Shint[=o] and the Chinese teachings became amalgamated in a common cause, and thus the philosophy of Chu Hi, mingling with the nationalism and patriotism inculcated by Shint[=o], brought about a remarkable result.  As a native scholar and