of the Japanese nation. Can it be imagined that when a religion is presented to them which alone is adapted to satisfy far more completely all the cravings of their higher nature, the Japanese, with their eminently receptive minds, will fail in time to recognise its immense superiority?[1] They have already accepted European philosophy and science. It is simply inconceivable that the Christian religion should not follow. Probably, as was the case with Buddhism, it will not be received without some modification. Their previous history suggests that this may take the direction of a more rationalistic form of Christian belief than that which prevails in Europe. ἀλλ᾽ ἦτοι μὲν ταῦτα θεῶν ἐν γούνασι κεῖται. The historian of the Japanese literature of the future will have more to say on this subject.
- ↑ There are even now 113,000 native Christians in Japan.
