in Japanese history, language and literature have cleared the path for
others to tread in. I have tried to acknowledge my debt to them in both
text and appendix.

To several American missionaries, who despite their trying labors have
had the time and the taste to study critically the religions of Japan, I
owe thanks and appreciation. With rare acuteness and learning, Rev. Dr.
George Wm. Knox has opened on its philosophical, and Rev. Dr. J.H.
DeForest on its practical side, the subject of Japanese Confucianism. By
his lexicographical work, Dr. J.C. Hepburn has made debtors to him both
the native and the alien. To our knowledge of Buddhism in Japan, Dr.
J.C. Berry and Rev. J.L. Atkinson have made noteworthy contributions. I
have been content to quote as authorities and illustrations, the names
of those who have thus wrought on the soil, rather than of those, who,
even though world-famous, have been but slightly familiar with the
ethnic and the imported faith of Japan. The profound misunderstandings
of Buddhism, which some very eminent men of Europe have shown in their
writings, form one of the literary curiosities of the world.

In setting forth these Morse lectures, I have purposely robbed my pages
of all appearance of erudition, by using as few uncouth words as
possible, by breaking up the matter into paragraphs of moderate length,
by liberally introducing subject-headings in italics, and by relegating
all notes to the appendix. Since writing the lectures, and even while
reading the final proofs, I have ransacked my library to find as many
references, notes, illustrations and authorities as possible, for the
benefit of the general student. I have purposely avoided recondite and
inaccessible books and have named those easily obtainable from American
or European publishers, or from Messrs. Kelly & Walsh, of Yokohama,
Japan. In using oriental words I have followed, in the main, the