THE SAMURAI
and prose pieces, which were supposed to embody the idea of the order. It was to play the part for the samurai that the Bible did for the ancient Hebrews. To tell you the truth, the stuff was of very unequal merit; there was a lot of very second-rate rhetoric, and some nearly namby-pamby verse. There was also included a quantity of verse and prose that had the trick of seeming wise. But for all such defects, much of the Book from the very beginning was splendid and inspiring matter. From that time to this, the Book of the Samurai has been under revision; much has been added, much rejected, and some deliberately rewritten. Now there is hardly anything in it that is not beautiful and perfect in form. The whole range of noble emotions finds expression there, and all the guiding ideas of our Modern State. We have recently admitted some terse criticism of its contents by a man named Henley."
"Old Henley!"
"A man who died a little time ago."
"I knew that man on earth. And he was in Utopia too! He was a great red-faced man, with fiery hair, a noisy, intolerant maker of enemies, with a tender heart—and he was one of the samurai?"
"He defied the Rules."
"He was a great man with wine. He wrote like wine; in our world he wrote wine; red wine with the light shining through."
"He was on the Committee that revised our Canon. For the revising and bracing of our Canon is work for poietic as well as kinetic men. You knew him in your world?"
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