ught of an immortality which is that a man's sincere
influence, his unselfish manifestations, those things which are the
essence of a man's existence, will live on; in other words, that the
best of a life is immortal; but not in the way of ghosts. As to the
memory, example and achievement of the dead it is sure that we are
aided by them."

_Governor_: "If we sacrifice ourselves for the public good it is the
best that we can do in this world. But are you composed at the sad
news concerning the _Lusitania_? If you think that event was directed
by divine destiny then you can be composed and may not complain."

_Myself_: "Such an accident may only be by divine destiny in the sense
that everything in this world, the saddest misery, the greatest
misfortunes, are suffered in the development of mankind, so that even
this War is unquestionably for the final betterment of the whole
world."

_Governor_: "Please say what is God."

_Myself_: "'If I could tell you what God is, I should be God myself.'
Many of my own countrymen have been taught that God is 'Spirit,
infinite, eternal, unchangeable in His Being, wisdom, power, holiness,
justice, goodness and truth.' There are those who would say that God
may be the total developing or bettering energy, and that we are all
part of God. Some people have a more personal conception of God, the
sum of all goodness. May not his Excellency consider the peasant's
idea of a Governor of a prefecture? The peasant's idea of a Governor
is greater than that of any particular Governor. His Excellency's good
works are not done by himself alone, but by all the good energies
inherent in the Governorship. Those energies are unseen but real. The
Japanese army and navy triumphed by the virtue of the Emperor--by the
virtue of ideas."

_Governor_: "The thought of _Sensei_[170] is quite Oriental."

_Myself_: "All religions are from Asia."

_Governor_: "This world where stars move, flowers blossom and decay,
spring and autumn come, and people are born and die is too full of
mystery, but I can feel some intelligence working through it though
incomprehensible."

_Myself_: "Alas, people will try to explain that
incomprehensibleness."

_Governor_: "What you have said is what I have been accepting to this
day. It satisfies my reason, but I feel in my heart something lacking.
I seek for a warmer interpretation of the world, for a more heartfelt
relation with cosmos. Several of my officials themselves lost