l reputation. They wanted a hero-principal, who would cut a
great figure in local politics and also be a hero-leader for the
Christian work in the whole island of Kyushu, causing the school to
shine not only in Kumamoto, but to send forth its light and its fame
throughout the Empire and even to foreign lands. The unpretentious,
unprepossessing-looking man who was chosen temporarily, though endowed
with common sense and rather unusual ability to harmonize the various
elements in the school, was not deemed satisfactory. He was too much
like Socrates. At last they found a man after their own heart. He had
traveled and studied long abroad; was a dashing, brilliant fellow;
would surely make things hum; so at least said those who recommended
him (and he did). But he was still a poor student in Scotland; his
passage money must be raised by the school if he was to be secured.
And raised it was. Four hundred and seventy-five dollars those one
hundred and fifty poor boys and girls, who lived on two dollars a
month, scantily clothed and insufficiently warmed, secured from their
parents and sent across the seas to bring back him who was to be their
hero-principal and pastor. The rest of the story I need not tell in
detail, but I may whisper that he was more of a slashing hero than
they planned for; in three months the boys' school was split in twain
and in less than three years both fragments of the school had not only
lost all their Christian character, but were dead and gone forever.
And the grounds on which the buildings stood were turned into mulberry
fields.

Talking not long since to a native friend, concerning the
hero-worshiping tendency of the Japanese, I had my attention called to
the fact that, while what has been said above is substantially correct
as concerns a large proportion of the people, especially the young
men, there is nevertheless a class whose ideal heroes are not
military, but moral. Their power arises not through self-assertion,
but rather through humility; their influence is due entirely to
learning coupled with insight into the great moral issues of life.
Such has been the character of not a few of the "moral" teachers. I
have recently read a Japanese novel based upon the life of one such
hero. Omi Seijin, or the "Sage of Omi," is a name well known among
the people of Japan; and his fame rests rather on his character than
on his learning. If tradition is correct, his influence on the people
of his region