crown, that it was above his sceptered sway. How often both Confucius
and Mencius repeat the highest requirement of a ruler of men to consist
in benevolence. Confucius would say, "Let but a prince cultivate virtue,
people will flock to him; with people will come to him lands; lands will
bring forth for him wealth; wealth will give him the benefit of right
uses. Virtue is the root, and wealth an outcome." Again, "Never has
there been a case of a sovereign loving benevolence, and the people not
loving righteousness," Mencius follows close at his heels and says,
"Instances are on record where individuals attained to supreme power
in a single state, without benevolence, but never have I heard of a
whole empire falling into the hands of one who lacked this virtue."
Also,--"It is impossible that any one should become ruler of the
people to whom they have not yielded the subjection of their hearts."
Both defined this indispensable requirement in a ruler by saying,
"Benevolence--Benevolence is Man." Under the régime of feudalism, which
could easily be perverted into militarism, it was to Benevolence that we
owed our deliverance from despotism of the worst kind. An utter
surrender of "life and limb" on the part of the governed would have left
nothing for the governing but self-will, and this has for its natural
consequence the growth of that absolutism so often called "oriental
despotism,"--as though there were no despots of occidental history!

Let it be far from me to uphold despotism of any sort; but it is a
mistake to identify feudalism with it. When Frederick the Great wrote
that "Kings are the first servants of the State," jurists thought
rightly that a new era was reached in the development of freedom.
Strangely coinciding in time, in the backwoods of North-western Japan,
Yozan of Yonézawa made exactly the same declaration, showing that
feudalism was not all tyranny and oppression. A feudal prince, although
unmindful of owing reciprocal obligations to his vassals, felt a higher