Page:TASJ-1-3.djvu/164

 names (kabans) which were originally bestowed by the Mikados, and those who make it their province to study genealogies can tell from a man’s ordinary surname who his remotest ancestor must have been.

From the fact of the divine descent of the Japanese people proceeds their immeasurable superiority to the natives of other countries in courage and intelligence.

It is not necessary to quote the opinions of foreigners in order to prove that the heavens are immovable and that the earth revolves, for these facts are clear enough from ancient traditions, but as the westerners have elaborated astronomy and physical geography to a very high degree of minuteness, their account of the matter is more easily comprehended. It will be unnecessarilyunnecessary [sic] to follow Hirata in the exposition which he here gives of the formation of the earth and its division into five continents, since he is candid enough to acknowledge the source from which it is taken. It is only fair to say that he praises the Dutch very warmly for their achievements in natural science, and accords to them a much higher place among philosophers than to the Chinese, whom he regards as empty visionaries. He also mentions Kæmpfer, and gives a summary of his “History of Japan.” There exists a book called Ijin kiôfu den, or the way to Terrify Barbarians, which takes for its text that part of the “History of Japan” in which Kaempfer gives his reasons for approving of the policy of excluding foreigners. It is difficult not to suppose that Kaempfer’s account of the dangers which have to be encountered in navigating the Japanese seas, and his statement that Nagasaki was the only port into which a good-sized vessel could enter, were prompted by a desire to serve Dutch interests. The story of the seizure by Japanese of the Dutch governor Nuits on the island of Formosa is quoted with much satisfaction by Hirata, as an illustration of the superior valour of his countrymen.

In the 12th month of the same year, which would about correspond to January 1812, he started off secretly to Fuchiu (now called Shidzuoka) in Suraga, where he