LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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170 FIRST VISIT TO EUROPE. catching the chivalrous spirit from their fathers, will also be our leaders in the immediate future. "It is a curious class. Perhaps you could nowhere else find such in the whole Asiatic continent. It is neither like the exclusive Brahmins of India nor the warrior robbers of Arabia. So far as my own obser­vation is concerned, they are the most haug·hty and ambitious race you could possibly find in the country. They have been trained to be faithful to their feudal masters even unto death. The spirit of patriotism has been handed down among them from generation to generation. To them honor is everything; life and property are of no account. Harakiri, an act of self-destruction, was only practiced among this class because they deemed it a shame to be killed by others. They are indeed the oriental knights, the spirit of Japan and flower of the nation. Though their rank seemed rather servile, in truth they have been ruling the nation from behind the screen of nominal poten­tates these past six centuries. It was truly they who started the late revolution. It was they who crushed the Shogun's despotic government and restored the reigning power to the sacred personage of the long­secluded Mikado. It was they who cast off the old worn-out Asiatic system and adopted the vigorous form of European civilization. It was they who started schools, pushed the press, cried out for per­sonal rights, and are now working out the way for a free constitution. I am happy to affirm here that they also are destined to carry the glad tidings of human salvation to their fellow-countrymen. They are far better educated than any other class. They are no longer ignorant, or worshipers of dumb idols. Modern science is a whetstone to their intellect. Eu-

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