Page:The Praises of Amida, 1907.djvu/44

 this place of confinement. We may chafe and fret as we will, but we cannot break through the prison gate nor climb over the encircling wall. What then are we to do? 8. Now we get the excellent lesson to be learned from the lad in Takeda Kōunsai's band of wandering knights. The lad was, as we have seen, in the company of a set of wrathful, shouting, impatient, bravoes, and received exactly the same treatment as they did. Young, however though he was, he was no partaker with them in their turbulent behaviour, but remained patiently in prison, possessing his soul. It was the dolls, the symbols of his absent parents, that enabled him thus meekly to bear his sufferings. The dolls helped him to keep his mind fixed on his parents, and whensoever he thought of them his heart broke through its prison-gates, and transported him to his distant home, and to the happiness of being at his father's and mother's side. In other words, the dolls were the flying-machine which carried his heart beyond the narrow bounds of the