SPIRITUAL BASIS OF SOCIAL LIFE 511 



religious— for it is not a purely rationalistic conception of life 

 whioli has produced " Busliido." In Japan we have the Hving in- 

 stance of a nation which has attained a degree of efficiency in 

 the material sphere unsurpassed by any Western Power, and 

 whose whole progress, whose whole greatness, is based on a 

 foundation which is supra-rational and religious. " Bushido " is a 

 religion ; for it constitutes a code of ethics which is imperative, 

 and to be imperative, an ethical code must appeal to some- 

 thing beyond the individual, to something which is above the 

 individual. It was not individual reason alone which raduced 

 the " Samurai " to renounce their privileges ; it is not individual 

 reason alone which impels the Japanese soldier or sailor to face 

 death with that heroic contempt for which they are famous ; 

 it is the spirit of "Bushido" which has accompUshed aU this, 

 and "Bushido" would not have accompKshed this had it been 

 only rationalistic. 



Thus it seems to us that the example of Japan shows us that a 

 society can be sociaUsed — and sociaUsed in the highest measure — 

 by a supra -rational organisation, without the hberty or the 

 material greatness of that society being in any way injured.^ 

 On the contrary, the material greatness to which Japan has 

 attained is due to the admirable spiritual organisation of the 

 Japanese nation ; the efficiency which has so astonished Euro- 

 peans is the fruit of that reUgion which governs the hfe of the 

 whole nation, which guides the action of even the socially lowest 

 individuals ; and Japan affords the most conspicuous illustration 

 of the truth of the dictum of Auguste Comte that " toute vraie 

 reorganisation sociale devra commencer par I'ordre spirituel."^ 



1 It may be objected that a supra-rational organisation is not neces- 

 sarily a religious organisation. But religion implies the principle of 

 universality as distinct from that of individualism, and supra-rationalism 

 implies also the appeal to a principle which is above the individual reason. 

 This principle, however, must, if it be above the individual reason, neces- 

 sarily make appeal likewise to universality as the only possible criterion, 

 once individualism is recognised as insufficient. 



^ A. Comte, Cours de Philosophie positive, v. 541. 



