Life based upon mere science is attractive to some men, because it has
all the characteristics of sport; it feigns seriousness, but is not
profound. When you go a-hunting, the less pity you have the better; for
your one object is to chase the game and kill it, to feel that you are
the greater animal, that your method of destruction is thorough and
scientific. And the life of science is that superficial life. It pursues
success with skill and thoroughness, and takes no account of the higher
nature of man. But those whose minds are crude enough to plan their
lives upon the supposition that man is merely a hunter and his paradise
the paradise of sportsmen will be rudely awakened in the midst of their
trophies of skeletons and skulls.
I do not for a moment suggest that Japan should be unmindful of
acquiring modern weapons of self-protection. But this should never be
allowed to go beyond her instinct of self-preservation. She must know
that the real power is not in the weapons themselves, but in the man who
wields those weapons; and when he, in his eagerness for power,
multiplies his weapons at the cost of his own soul, then it is he who
is in even greater danger than his enemies.
Things that are living are so easily hurt; therefore they require
protection. In nature, life protects itself within its coverings, which
are built with life's own material. Therefore they are in harmony with
life's growth, or else when the time comes they easily give way and are
forgotten. The living man has his true protection in his spiritual
ideals, which have their vital connection with his life and grow with
his growth. But, unfortunately, all his armour is not living,--some of
it is made of steel, inert and mechanical. Therefore, while making use
of it, man has to be careful to protect himself from its tyranny. If he
is weak enough to grow smaller to fit himself to his covering, then it
becomes a process of gradual suicide by shrinkage of the soul. And Japan
must have a firm faith in the moral law of existence to be able to
assert to herself that the Western nations are following that path of
suicide, where they are smothering their humanity under the immense
weight of organizations in order to keep themselves in power and hold
others in subjection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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