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336 his writings to the divine descent of the Mikados, and their unquestioned and unquestionable claim to be considered the de jure sovereigns of Japan, was tending slowly but surely to sap the authority of the de facto rulers. It was, however, a little late in the day for them to interfere. Nothing could undo the work of nearly forty years of assiduous propagation of his views both through the press and by vivâ voce lectures to his hundreds of disciples. His published works amount to several hundred volumes. It is impossible to notice more than a very few of them here.

The Kishin Shinron (1805), or "New Treatise on the Gods," is a characteristic specimen of Hirata's writings He here combats the rationalistic theories of the Kangakusha by proving, or attempting to prove, that the ancient Chinese believed in a real God called Shangti or Tien, who dwells in heaven, and guides the affairs of this world but whom the Sung schoolmen endeavoured to explain away as a mere allegory, attributing all phenomena to the action of principles without life which they called Yin and Yang (Positive and Negative Principles of Nature). "But how," argues Hirata, "can there be action without life? Certainly the existence of activity presupposes a living God from whom it proceeds."

"In this connection," Hirata goes on to say, "I will relate a story. Of late some people have introduced the learning of a country called Holland. It has found a good number of students here in Great Yedo. It may be true, as I am told, that the men of this country are fond of examining profoundly the principles of things. Among other inventions they have a machine called 'electer,' which they say is constructed by an application