Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/206

 basis which is to last for ever. That this brilliant achievement embellishes the annals of our country, is due to the glorious virtues of our sacred Imperial ancestors and to the loyalty and bravery of our subjects, their love of country, and their public spirit." There is no ambiguity here, nor, indeed, any feebleness of language. The Mikado, looking back to the immortals as his progenitors, and persuaded that his dynasty and empire have their protection and the protection of the successive Mikados now enrolled in the ranks of the gods, believes that the past twenty-six centuries of his house's rule and his realm's integrity are an earnest of unbroken continuity awaiting both in the future. People in the Occident, who listen with the calm born of long custom while their monarchs proclaim themselves king or emperor "by the grace of God," and who join to the echoes of their triumphal pæans a prayer for the abiding contenance of the "Lord of Hosts," can scarcely claim an unqualified title to criticise the more comprehensive, though not more robust faith of the Emperor of Japan.

The various religious ceremonials observed at Court are all on the strict lines of orthodox Shintō. On the first day of the first month the Shihō-hai (four-quarter adoration) is celebrated. The Emperor worships the Sun Goddess, whose shrine is at Ise, as well as the celestial and terrestrial deities, and makes offerings before the Imperial cen-