LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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TRIBUTES. 341 thing of this sort can be charged to Mr. N eesima, and therefore I have not hesitated to speak of it and to commend him in this respect also as one to be honored and imitated." At the same meeting, Mr. Takegoshi, editor of "The Christian," said: -"In this large audience of the aged as well as the young, of men and women, sitting shoulder to shoul­der, there are doubtless atheists as well as Christians, theists, Buddhists, and materialists, and certainly many who never knew Mr. Neesima. Why have so many unacquainted with him assembled here with those who knew him well? To honor his memory. And how shall we do this? Shall we honor him as president of the Doshisha? The Doshisha University is so firmly established that we need not grieve on its account. Shall we honor him then as a Christian? But this atheist, this materialist, and yonder Bud­dhist, how can they honor him for this reason? Why, then, are they here? This great assembly has gath­ered, I think, to commemorate Mr. N eesima as one of the great men of this century whose extraordinary character is the common possession of the people. It is, therefore, more fitting to speak of him on this oc­casion as a hero than to relate the history of his work or to tell the story of his faith. And there arises in our mind first the question, What is a hero? Man is a being who worships heroes. The universe is the temple of hero-worship. The history of the thousands of years since man first inhabited the world is the his­t.ory of this worship. "Carlyle asserts that the worship of a false hero is the evidence of weakness, and that the homage paid the true hero indicates a great people. Yet even

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