LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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OFFICIAL INTERFERENCE. 201 ''Then he is like a man who has a license to sdl deer meat, but who sells dog meat." "Well, is it dog meat? I used to think so, but on tasting of it I find it is a great deal better than deer meat; and I would like to ask you one question. This religion is allowed to be taught publicly in Kobe, in Osaka, and in twenty or thirty places in Tokyo. How is it that here in Kyoto a man is not allowed to hear it in his own house? Are we not all under the same government? I do not understand it." "Well, I do not say that this religion is either good or bad, and I do not say that you and your friends cannot hear it in your house; but you let in the common people, the lower classes, who cannot un­derstand it. This we cannot allow. We have good and sufficient religions here in Japan; we do not want any more. We have Confucianism for scholars like you, and Buddhism for the masses." "I would like to ask you one thing. If Confucian­ism is an all-sufficient religion, why is it, since its founder lived htmdreds of years before Christ and taught during a long liie, that it has not spread beyond China and Japan? And if Buddhism is an all-sufficient religion, started by Buddha hundreds of years before Christ, and taught by him through a long life, how is it that it has not spread beyond India, China, and Japan? And if Christianity is a bad re­ligion, how is it, since its founder only taught three years and was put to death when he was thirty-three years old, that it has spread all over Europe and America, and is spreading all over Africa and Asia, and all the islands of the sea? " "We do not say that it is either good or bad. But you must not allow people to meet at your house, and you are discharged."

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