on divining, obtained the change of "Hi ()" into "Ton()."

"Unlucky las the 'Lineation' says, 'Veils his shame.' The 'Negative III' of 'Hi' is not in the middle as it is at the top of the lower complement; and is also not in its proper position, as it occupies the position of a positive while it is a negative element. It is weak, unmiddling, unproper, and is at the time of the 'obstruction' between the heaven and the earth; thus it involves something shameful and wrong.

It 'veils the shame' and does not confess, which is the main constituent of your crime. Again 'H' is composed of the upper complement of Ken' and the lower of 'Kon,' of which 'Ken' intimates head and 'Kon' ground. The head falling on the ground, it is supported on the change of the 'Positive III, which is a sure emblem of being beheaded and scaffolded. You will be scaffolded!'

Before I closed my assertion Suga began to turn pale; he trembled, his voices shook, and could not speak. I consoled him by telling him that the order of Providence can not be got rid of. Shortly after this, he was beheaded for the crime of bribery.

FORTUNE OF SHINTOISM.

In the month of May of the year 1885, Mr. Shenke the Bishop of the Great Temple of Izumo came to see me, and after an interval of congratulations and conversations, he proposed as the following:

"I have been told that the Government is going to fix an established religion in order to unite the belief of the people in one. I have not been told, however, whether the Shintoism, or the Buddhism, or the Christianism will be taken. It is not polite for us to discuss about the will of His Majesty, the Emperor, but to an

your

ticipate it will be a great help to us, and I should like to trouble 'Eki' for this purpose. with you "Certainly." was my reply, "But before going to divine what will be the established religion, I shall first of all divine the fortune of the Shintoism.' I obtained the change of "Hi ()" into "Shin (). "Hi is against humanity; not advantageous to the constancy of honourable men; the great go away and the small come.'

"This hexagram represents the time of the ebb of the positive elements and the flow of the negative, and it is the emblem of the decline of Morality and the flourishment of Intellect. Again 'Tai' is nonobstruction, and 'Hi,' obstruction. Now, this hexagram. obtained in divining the fortune of the Shintoism, shows the time of the obstructions in that religion. Once again, in the diagram the positive elements are above and the negative below which is the indication of the God's being in Heaven and not in the country. But this is the principle of the momentary fluctuation of positives and negatives, and can not be adjusted and meddled by human power. Thus we have the phrase 'Hi is against humanity.' Though the meaning of the hexagram is thus, yet the Orderly Sequence' says, "Things can not for ever be shut up in Hi;' and also 'Hi' comes from 'Ton (),' so that by the advancement of one negative, it becomes 'Kwan ()', which gives the phrase, 'Sees the light of the country.' Hence our Emperor, Ministers, and all will be able to perceive the majesty of the Almighty, and our national religion the Shintoism will be made grand and eternal.

"The 'Positive V' says, How critical! How critical! [Make it as secure as if] it be fastened to a densely grown mulberry grove,' which I must now explain. That which can sustain the fate of the Shintoism on its last legs is only a line of a 'densely grown

mulberry grove.' As this means a plant with branched stems on a common root, we must use that holy grass the 'Metogi' (i. e. the ancient divining sticks), thus revive the doctrine of the Futomani' (divination) served by our ancient 'Urabe' (divining officers belonging to the Imperial Household), ask the will of our God when any event occurs, make the people be aware of the sacredness and blessing of the Gods' of the heaven and of the earth protecting our holy land. This hexagram is the uncovering of the will of Heaven for you by the Gods of our country, and we must be very much thankful and reverential towards them. Again our country is called Fuso (meaning dense mulberry); and then the revival of the Futomani with the metogi in subtaining the Fusō, is doing the ancient holy service to the God of Futotama-no-Mikoto, at the present time. Now one may say that it is a breach of the principles of the Shintoism to do so. At present, philosophy has been greatly improved and greatly extended, and all the religions are standing on dangerous situations, except ours. As we have the divine service of Futomani which is effective enough to make philosophers amaze, if we will proceed to make the world feel the power of our Gods through this art, our Shintoism can be restored from its verge of ruin, though not flourish it at once."

ON SUPPLYING THE MILITARY CASTE WITH

OCCUPATIONS.

One day in 1882 a high rank officer came to me and said, "At present, we have 400,000 of the military caste in our country, and they are very poor since they lost their rations. As the saying goes, 'Virtue follows food and clothing,' if they continue in this state, I am afraid they will make great mischiefs through their poverty. I am going to scheme out a means of giving them

employments; please divine it for me." I replied, "I am one of the sympathists, and am very glad to divine it. I divined and obtained the change of "Hi ()' into "Shin ().”

"At present there are a great many poor people in this country, so that notices of penury is heard in every district. Those who are originally beggars may be said to be originally poor, but the most miserable are the military caste without employments, who deserve our pity. The military caste were living on their hereditary rations, obtained by their ancestors through their achievements, and they do not know the trouble of working and obtaining food and clothes by themselves. At the Revolution they were deprived of their rations and lost at once their means of living. To obtain a means of sustaining themselves, they schemed out several ways; some of them turned into merchants and some into farmers. But as they are unexperienced in trading or farming, any capital they had was robbed by the more experienced and sly merchants and farmers. They are thus in a very miserable state of poverty, without money to support their own families while their wives and children are appealing hunger and thirst to them.

"The duty of the people belonging to the military caste, when they were living on their rations, was to die for their masters, and their honour was to throw their lives whenever required. This old character is still discernible in them, though they are hard up to-day. Their conduct is determinate and like that of the original citizens. They are then the most executive class of people of our country. The duty of the Government will be completely fulfilled if it will give them respective occupations and make them strive to do something as far as their power admits them to do. The method of doing so will be as I shall explain below:

"The phrase, 'How critical! How critical!' means

that the above-mentioned military caste are pressed upon by the difficulty of living and are on the very verge of death. 'Fastened to a densely grown mulberry grove' means the only thing which can retrieve them is the mulberry. Then, the whole thing to be done is to make them cultivate a virgin soil, plant it with mulberry-trees, employ themselves in silk-worming and spinning, and thus to make them sustain their households. Let me try to discuss the way of doing so.

"The eastern parts of our country abound in uncultivated plains, and the western parts in flat tablelands. The weeds on the plains can be used as manure, and the shrubs of the tablelands as fuel. But South America abounds in birds' manure, which can be obtained very cheap. The best thing to be done is, for the Government, to lend them a ship and some capitals, to take our productions there, exchange them with the birds' excretions, sell them to the natives, buy therewith the weedy plains, make the military caste cultivate and plant them with mulberry-trees. In order to effect this, railroads must be woven throughout the country, soldiers must be trained, military works must be raised in a great number to form a village, the military caste must be sent there as emigrants, the males to be trained in military exercises during the terms fixed for the standing army, and females to be occupied in pasturage and silkworming. "The foregoing paragraphs give only a general outline. As to the details of carrying out this scheme, I leave them to be studied by those who are bound to do so. The course of proceding directed thus, the abundant poors of this day will be altered to strong soldiers for enriching and strengthening the country, and the glory of the country will become extraordinal indeed!"