508 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



Some privileges they lost, but they took a noble revenge, and set about 

 to level up the nation to their standard instead of themselves falling 

 below it. 



" The principles of ' Bushido ' have always had an intellectual and 

 literary basis ; the claims of learning have been held in as great reverence 

 by the ' Samurai ' as feats of arms. ... If ' Bushido ' is intellectually 

 aristocratic, it is politically and socially rather the reverse. Anyone can 

 become a ' Bushi ' by conduct in peace and valour in war ; merit alone 

 recruits and maintains its ranks. It is open to the highest and the lowest 

 in the land to excel, since neither birth nor wealth is required ; only per- 

 sonal worth and conduct. The Government, at the time of the Restora- 

 tion, experienced the need for a moral basis for its system of education, 

 and found in ' Bushido ' and the tenets of the ' Samurai ' a code applicable 

 to all classes of the people." 



And again : 



" When the modem revival began in Japan, and men began to wander 

 over the world in pursuit of science, it was feared that ' Bushido ' would 

 lose its influence, and that Materialism would dominate, owing to the 

 multiplicity of things that had to be learnt. So fkmly, however, was it 

 embedded in the history of the people, and so energetic were those who 

 held aloft its banners, that it has not been overborne, but has rather 

 prospered with every material advance of the country. . . . lU-starred 

 indeed was Russia to have chosen a moment for the war, when upon the 

 material foundation of modem science was superimposed the moral 

 structure of an older age." 



We have given a somewhat lengthy quotation, because no 

 language could depict to us better the value, the significance, the 

 indispensable necessity of a social force which guarantees the 

 integration and cohesion of society. The greatness of Japan is 

 not the result of its having rejected the supra-rational principles 

 of a former age ; quite the contrary. " The Government, at the 

 time of the Eestoration, experienced the need of a moral basis 

 for its system of education, and found in ' Bushido ' and in the 

 tenets of the ' Samurai ' a code applicable to all classes of the 

 people." Is not this sentence full of significance 1 The material 

 prosperity of Japan is based upon the ideaUsm which centuries 

 have sanctioned. This is precisely what Western civilisation 

 lacks ; the material prosperity which industriaUsm has engen- 

 dered has not proceeded fari passu with the development of 



