Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/123

 tion—that is the way to place society on a basis of strict justice.

3. Imperial edicts must be respected. The Sovereign is to be regarded as the heaven, his subjects as the earth. The heaven hangs above, the earth sustains it beneath; the four seasons follow in ordered succession, and all the influences of nature operate satisfactorily. Should the earth be placed above the heaven, ruin would at once ensue for the universe. So the Sovereign directs, the subject conforms. The Sovereign shows the way, the subject follows it. Indifference to the Imperial edicts signifies national ruin.

4. Courtesy must be the rule of conduct for all the Ministers and officials of the Government. Wise administration of national affairs has its roots in the observance of etiquette. Without etiquette on the part of the superior, it is impossible to govern the inferior, and if inferiors ignore etiquette, they will certainly be betrayed into offences. Social order and due distinctions between the classes can only be preserved by strict conformity with etiquette.

5. To punish the evil and reward the good is humanity's best law. A good deed should never be left unrecompensed or an evil unrebuked. Sycophancy and dishonesty are the most potent factors for subverting the State and destroying the people. Flatterers are never wanting to recount the faults of inferiors to superiors and depict the latter's errors to the former. To such men we can never look for loyalty to the Sovereign or sympathy with their fellow-subjects. They are the chief elements of national disturbance.

9. To be just one must have faith. Every affair demands a certain measure of faith on the part of those that deal with it. Every question, whatever its nature or tendency, requires for its settlement an exercise of