LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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118 SEMINARY COURSE AT ANDOVER. would doubtless be beneficial to his health ; the opp01~ tunities for meeting men, for studying western insti­tutions, for seeii1g the world and enlarging his horizon under exceptionally favorable circumstances, and, above all, for impressing upon the future educational system of Japan his own views of the relations be­tween education and religion, civilization and Chris­tianity, were unique, and would surely nf~Ver recur. He was the channel of communication between the com­missioner and the world, for Mr. Tanaka then spoke no foreign language ; he had been requested to write a report on a general system of education for Japan ; his friends unanimously advised him to accept the commissioner's offer. Yet he hesitated to comwit himself to a course which might end in his becoming the servant of the Mikado rather than the servant of Christ, and referred the question to his " American father" for final decision. This decision was favorable to his acceptance of the commissioner's offer, and he was thus brought into daily contact with some of the most influential and progressive men of New Japan. Trained in the Confucian philosophy, familiar from experience with the social and family life to which it leads, yet always condemning the Confucian doctrine of filial duty as tyrannous, he was particularly anxious that Mr. Tanaka should become acquainted with the life he had known in the Christian homes of New Eng­land, and dming the three months passed in visiting the schools and colleges of the Eastern States the commissioner was the guest of many leading eJn<'a­tors and philanthropists in New York, Boston, New Haven, and Amherst. In his journal and letters Mr. Neesima alludes with modesty to his services to the embassy ; yet it would

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