LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA
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STATEMENT TO THE JAPANESE PUBLIC. 309 specting religion, so that even those who do not themselves believe in Christianity are ready to acknowledge that it contains a living power for the regeneration of men. Thus society has been prepared to welcome us. At the same time our Doshisha has come to be appreciated and respected, and people have begun to recognize that we are giving our students a sound and well balanced education both intellectually and morally, so that our school is one to which parents may send their children without hesitation. Meeting with such favorable reception, our school has steadily advanced both in number of students and in grade of its curriculum, and ever our friends have urged us to furnish higher and higher courses of study. "Especially in the 14th and 15th years of Meiji (1881 and 1882) such requests began to come in upon us, and we felt that we must proceed to lay the foundations of the future university. Yet the establishment of a university is one of the greatest works that can be undertaken in this country, one in which we need many helpers and much money; and what was our condition at that time? Having a few friends and helpers, we were not so entirely neglected as at first, but still we were in an isolated condition. What then could we do ? Yet never for a moment did we falter in working for our purpose. We sought those who might favor our plans and help us, and, finding several who gave us assurances of aid, we held several meetings, to which we invited the members of the Kyoto Fu Assembly and asked their cooperation. Receiving the approval of the leading members of the Assembly, we published a tract 'On the Establishment of a Private University,' and set forth in it the purposes of the proposed institution. This may
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