SHIWTOISM KANOKOGI. 615 



In certain crises of life, when fate places before us an absolute 

 demand, the fulfillment of which transcends our strength, man 

 gathers up all his power and does what he can. He comes at the end 

 of his strength ; it does not reach further and still he hears the call 

 of the absolute demand. The void stretches out all around him. 

 The heavy atmosphere charged with the cold, silent, threatening fate 

 weighs upon him. There is to be found no ladder, no wings to make 

 use of ; and yet this incessant resounding call of higher command ! 

 What remains for man to do but to cross the border line of his own 

 strength and to invoke and appropriate unknown higher powers 

 whether it be the cold, indifferent fate or sympathetic personal gods ! 



Thus we have here the belief in higher powers — religion. The call 

 of duty is heard outside, beyond ; but it does not come from the out- 

 side, but from within, from life itself. The demand has its root 

 deep in life itself, hence its categorical imperative. 



From what has been said we may draw the conclusion that so long 

 as the nations of the world compete Avith one another in raising 

 armies and building navies, so long as mere might, violence, and 

 brutality determine the fate of a nation — so long will Shintoism sur- 

 vive and fulfill its task as the protecting genius of the people. 



G. SHINTOISM MUST NOT BECOME A POSITIVE RELIGION. 



The influence of Shintoism on the Japanese Nation is a good one 

 when as a force it is diffused through the life of the people, but 

 would become fatal if it should be concentrated, fossilized as it were, 

 and assume a definite, sharpl}^ defined form after the manner of 

 other positive religions. Diffused, Shintoism is an active force im- 

 pelling the nation forward, as an ardent love of the fatherland and 

 of the whole. From this flow all virtues: altruism, sacrifice, loyalit}'', 

 etc. But concentrated it would become a contemptible chauvinism 

 and turning its back on the whole would sink to a narrow provincial- 

 ism, fettering the nation in its cultural endeavors and obstructing 

 its onward and forward march. By this it would forfeit its mission 

 and its life. For its lift — the longing for more — would be lost. 

 It would thus sacrifice its most precious possession to a pitifid for- 

 mula and commit a miserable suicide. It would be a corpse, loathing 

 and noxious to the same people whose well-being was once its only 

 concern. 



