These then are the background influences upon which in our time is being built up the new Shinto influence, which takes the form of compulsory shrine visiting. The Vatican has accepted the assurance of the Japanese Government that the shrine visiting was merely an act of respect and loyalty, and had no religious implications. Some Protestants have accepted the ceremonies on the same ground, or as Mr. Young expresses it, as "an empty hocus-poons, so why not perform them for the sake of peace and quietness Good-natured officials. in ancient Rome tried to persuade the early Christians that the acknowledgement of the Emperor's divinity was a mere matter of form and meant nothing: but Christians n those days were less easily convinced and less careful of their comfort. Vietsti Amaterasu!
Such is the manner in which the army maintains the constitutional Euarantee that the Emperor's subjects Shalt enjoy religious freedom. If the shrine-visiting were as free from religious. character as the officials pretend, there would be no object in enforcing 1t.
Provocative thought is found throughout this book, as in all that Mr. Morgan Young has written: as in his answer to the suggestion that Japan is becoming more Fascist: "She was much more than Fascist before Fascism was ever dreamed of"—".
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.