Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/213

 of men who consummated the tragedy without aid, especially when the sacrifice of life was by way of protest against the excesses of a feudal chief or the crimes of a ruler, or when some motive for secrecy existed.

It must be observed that the suicide of the bushi was never inspired by any doctrine like that of Hegesias. Death did not present itself to him as a legitimate means of escaping from the cares and disappointments of life. Self-destruction had only one consolatory aspect, namely, that it was the soldier's privilege to expiate a crime with his own sword, not under the hand of the executioner. He might not be haled before a legal tribunal, like a common peasant or an artisan. It rested with his feudal chief to determine his guilt, and his peremptory duty was never to question the justice of an order to commit suicide, but to obey without murmur or protest. For the rest, the general motives were to escape the dishonour of falling into the hands of a victorious enemy, to remonstrate against some official abuse which no ordinary complaint could reach, or, by means of a dying protest, to turn a liege lord from pursuing courses injurious to his reputation and his fortunes. This last was the noblest reason for suicide, and by no means the most infrequent. Scores of examples are recorded of men who, with everything to make existence desirable, fortune, friends, high office, and higher prospects, deliberately laid down their lives at the prompting of loyalty, their