had set a noble example for all time, in his treatment of Shingen,
whose provinces lay in a mountainous region quite away from the sea, and
who had consequently depended upon the Hōjō provinces of the Tokaido for
salt. The Hōjō prince wishing to weaken him, although not openly at war
with him, had cut off from Shingen all traffic in this important
article. Kenshin, hearing of his enemy's dilemma and able to obtain his
salt from the coast of his own dominions, wrote Shingen that in his
opinion the Hōjō lord had committed a very mean act, and that although
he (Kenshin) was at war with him (Shingen) he had ordered his subjects
to furnish him with plenty of salt--adding, "I do not fight with salt,
but with the sword," affording more than a parallel to the words of
Camillus, "We Romans do not fight with gold, but with iron." Nietzsche
spoke for the samurai heart when he wrote, "You are to be proud of your
enemy; then, the success of your enemy is your success also." Indeed
valor and honor alike required that we should own as enemies in war only
such as prove worthy of being friends in peace. When valor attains this
height, it becomes akin to



BENEVOLENCE, THE FEELING OF
DISTRESS,

love, magnanimity, affection for others, sympathy and pity, which were
ever recognized to be supreme virtues, the highest of all the attributes
of the human soul. Benevolence was deemed a princely virtue in a twofold
sense;--princely among the manifold attributes of a noble spirit;
princely as particularly befitting a princely profession. We needed no
Shakespeare to feel--though, perhaps, like the rest of the world, we
needed him to express it--that mercy became a monarch better than his