ce. Debarred from commercial pursuits, the military class
itself did not aid commerce; but there was no channel of human activity,
no avenue of thought, which did not receive in some measure an impetus
from Bushido. Intellectual and moral Japan was directly or indirectly
the work of Knighthood.

Mr. Mallock, in his exceedingly suggestive book, "Aristocracy and
Evolution," has eloquently told us that "social evolution, in so far as
it is other than biological, may be defined as the unintended result of
the intentions of great men;" further, that historical progress is
produced by a struggle "not among the community generally, to live, but
a struggle amongst a small section of the community to lead, to direct,
to employ, the majority in the best way." Whatever may be said about the
soundness of his argument, these statements are amply verified in the
part played by bushi in the social progress, as far as it went, of our
Empire.

How the spirit of Bushido permeated all social classes is also shown in
the development of a certain order of men, known as _otoko-date_, the
natural leaders of democracy. Staunch fellows were they, every inch of
them strong with the strength of massive manhood. At once the spokesmen
and the guardians of popular rights, they had each a following of
hundreds and thousands of souls who proffered in the same fashion that
samurai did to daimio, the willing service of "limb and life, of body,
chattels and earthly honor." Backed by a vast multitude of rash and
impetuous working-men, those born "bosses" formed a formidable check to
the rampancy of the two-sworded order.

In manifold ways has Bushido filtered down from the social class where
it originated, and acted as leaven among the masses, furnishing a moral
standard for the whole people. The Precepts of Knighthood, begun at
first as the glory of the elite, became in time an aspiration and
inspiration to the nation at large; and though the populace could not
attain the moral height of those loftier souls, yet _Yamato Damashii_,
the Soul of Japan, ultimately came to express the _Volksgeist_ of the
Island Realm. If religion is no more than "Morality touched by
emotion," as Matthew Arnold defines it, few ethical systems are better
entitled to the rank of religion than Bushido. Motoori has put the mute
utterance of the nation into words when he sings:--

"Isles of blest Japan!
Should your Yamato spirit
Strangers seek to scan,