Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/218

 more attractive in the eyes of the samurai since to adopt it involved a heavy sacrifice on the altar of loyalty to the Throne. It had so long been the bushi's habit to associate great deeds with some form of self-immolation that he had learned to regard the latter as a kind of finger-post to the former. There might have been some uncertainty about the initial step, but so soon as that was taken by the southern clans, their example acquired compelling force. History shows that the romantic element occupies a prominent place in Japanese character, and that the educated classes can always be led into feverish pursuit of an ideal which appeals to their sense of moral nobility. The atmosphere was full of loyalty and patriotism in 1869. The mood of the nation was exalted. Anyone hesitating, for plainly selfish reasons, to follow a course apparently essential to the new order of things and sanctioned by the example of the great southern clans, would have seemed to forfeit the right of calling himself a samurai.

Although there cannot have been any doubt now in the minds of the leaders of the revolutionary movement that they would not be able to stop short of the total abolition of feudalism, they appreciated that it would be necessary to advance cautiously towards a goal which still lay beyond the range of their followers' vision. They sought, therefore, to preserve the semblance of the old institution after its reality had ceased