The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bushido, the Soul of Japan, by Inazo Nitobe

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Title: Bushido, the Soul of Japan

Author: Inazo Nitobe

Release Date: April 21, 2004 [EBook #12096]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUSHIDO, THE SOUL OF JAPAN ***

Produced by Paul Murray, Andrea Ball, the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team and the Million Book Project/State Central Library,
Hyderabad

BUSHIDO
THE SOUL OF JAPAN

BY
INAZO NITOBE, A.M., Ph.D.

Author's Edition, Revised and Enlarged
13th EDITION
1908

DECEMBER, 1904

TO MY BELOVED UNCLE
TOKITOSHI OTA
WHO TAUGHT ME TO REVERE THE PAST
AND
TO ADMIRE THE DEEDS OF THE SAMURAI
I DEDICATE
THIS LITTLE BOOK

--"That way
Over the mountain, which who stands upon,
Is apt to doubt if it be indeed a road;
While if he views it from the waste itself,
Up goes the line there, plain from base to brow,
Not vague, mistakable! What's a break or two
Seen from the unbroken desert either side?
And then (to bring in fresh philosophy)
What if the breaks themselves should prove at last
The most consummate of contrivances
To train a man's eye, teach him what is faith?"

--ROBERT BROWNING,

_Bishop Blougram's Apology_.

"There are, if I may so say, three powerful spirits, which have
from time to time, moved on the face of the waters, and given a
predominant impulse to the moral sentiments and energies of mankind.
These are the spirits of liberty, of religion, and of honor."

--HALLAM,

_Europe in the Middle Ages_.

"Chivalry is itself the poetry of life."

--SCHLEGEL,

_Philosophy of History_.

[Transcriber's Note: [=O] represents O with macron,
[=o] represents o with macron,
[=u] represents u with macron]

PREFACE

About ten years ago, while spending a few days under the hospitable roof
of the distinguished Belgian jurist, the lamented M. de Laveleye, our
conversation turned, during one of our rambles, to the subject of
religion. "Do you mean to say," asked the