[Footnote 55: "Then the venerable Sāriputra said to that daughter of Sagara, the Nāga-king: 'Thou hast conceived the idea of enlightenment, young lady of good family, without sliding back, and art gifted with immense wisdom, but supreme, perfect enlightenment is not easily won. It may happen, sister, that a woman displays an unflagging energy, performs good works for many thousands of Aeons, and fulfils the six perfect virtues (Pāramitās), but as yet there is no example of her having reached Buddhaship, and that because a woman cannot occupy the five ranks, viz., 1, the rank of Brahma; 2, the rank of Indra; 3, the rank of a chief guardian of the four quarters; 4, the rank of Kakravartin; 5, the rank of a Bodhisattva incapable of sliding back," Saddharma Pundarika, Kern's Translation, p. 252.] [Footnote 56: Chiū-jō-himé was the first Japanese nun, and the only woman who is commemorated by an idol. "She extracted the fibres of the lotus root, and wove them with silk to make tapestry for altars." Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 128. Her romantic and marvellous story is given in S. and H., p. 397. "The practice of giving ranks to women was commenced by Jito Tennō (an empress, 690-705)." Many women shaved their heads and became nuns "on becoming widows, as well as on being forsaken by, or after leaving their husbands. Others were orphans." One of the most famous nuns (on account of her rank) was the Nii no Ama, widow of Kiyomori and grandmother of the Emperor Antoku, who were both drowned near Shimono-séki, in the great naval battle of 1185 A.D. Adams's History of Japan, Vol. I., p. 37; M.E., p. 137.] [Footnote 57: M.E., p. 213; Japanese Women, World's Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, 1893, Chap. III.] [Footnote 58: There is no passage in the original Greek texts, or in the Revised Version of the New Testament which ascribes wings to the _aggelos_, or angel. In Rev. xii. 14, a woman is "given two wings of a great eagle."] [Footnote 59: Japanese Women in Politics, Chap. I., Japanese Women, Chicago, 1893; Japanese Girls and Women, Chapters VI. and VII.] [Footnote 60: Bakin's novels are dominated by this idea, while also preaching in fiction strict Confucianism. See A Captive of Love, by Edward Greey.] [Footnote 61: "Fate is one of the great words of the East. _Japan's language is loaded and overloaded with it._ Parents are forever saying before their children, 'There's no help for it.' I once remarked to a school-teacher, 'Of course you love to teach children.' His quick reply was, 'Of course I don't. I do it merely because there is no help for it.' Moralists here deplore the prosperity of the houses of ill-fame and then add with a sigh, 'There's no help for it.' All society reverberates with this phrase with reference to questions that need the application of moral power, will power."--J.H. De Forest.