Chapter 31

"The heart of my country, the power of my country, the Light of my country, is Buddhism."--Yatsubuchi, of Japan.

"Buddhism was the teacher under whose instruction the Japanese nation grew up."--Chamberlain.

"Buddhism was the civilizer. It came with the freshness of religious zeal, and religious zeal was a novelty. It come as the bearer of civilization and enlightenment."

"Buddhism has had a fair field in Japan, and its outcome has not been elevating. Its influence has been aesthetic and not ethical. It added culture and art to Japan, as it brought with itself the civilization of continental Asia. It gave the arts, and more, it added the artistic atmosphere.... Reality disappears. 'This fleeting borrowed world' is all mysterious, a dream; moonlight is in place of the clear hot sun.... It has so fitted itself to its surroundings that it seems indigenous."--George William Knox.

"The Japanese ... are indebted to Buddhism for their present civilization and culture, their great susceptibility to the beauties of nature, and the high perfection of several branches of artistic industry."--Rein.

"We speak of _God_, and the Japanese mind is filled with idols. We mention _sin_, and he thinks of eating flesh or the killing of insects. The word _holiness_ reminds him of crowds of pilgrims flocking to some famous shrine, or of some anchorite sitting lost in religions abstraction till his legs rot off. He has much error to unlearn before he can take in the truth-"--R.E. McAlpine.

"There in a life of study, prayer, and thought, Kenshin became a saintly priest--not wide In intellect nor broad in sympathies, For such things come not from the ascetic life; But narrow, strong, and deep, and like the stream That rushes fervid through the narrow path Between the rooks at Nikkō--so he grasped, Heart, soul, and strength, the holy Buddha's Law With no room left for doubt, or sympathy For other views."--Kenshin's Vision.

"For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense is offered unto my name, and a pure offering, for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts."--Malachi.