LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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TRIBUTES. 343 second time, do not stop there. Do not stop even after fighting the third time. Your sword shattered, your arrows all spent, yet do not stop fighting till every bone is broken and every drop of blood is shed for the truth. Yes, if we do not fight for the truth is not our life a useless one? ' These words rouse me to action. When I read them I sit upright. Within, his spirit raged like the billowy sea, but it flowed out calm and peaceful in a meek and gentle conduct. So a mighty river foaming with a power to move mountains while in its bed, when it reaches the sea spreads tranquilly over the vast surface without a ripple. The secret of this combination of gentle­ness and strength was his confidence in heaven. He intrusted all to God. He used to say, 'The grasses do not thank the spring breeze, nor the falling leaves complain of the autumn wind.' Autumn wind and spring zephyr were alike to him. He neither strove to win fame nor to avoid misfortune. If joy and pleasure came, he did not refuse them; if they passed by, he let them go and did not run after them. He left everything to its natural course. And thus on his death-bed he said: 'I do not complain to heaven, nor find fault with any man.' He began by trusting in heaven, he ended by enjoying it. What a sublime life. Nor did he, like an idle preacher, think lightly of his high calling. When he was in Kobe for his health, being in Osaka I went down to see him. For­getful of his own illness he conversed with me a long time, asserting that the progress and prosperity of a nation at any epoch was to be measured by the num­ber of its great men, and went on to speak of the scar­city of men devoted to the cause of humanity. After an hour's talk he was tired out, and fearing that he

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