{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_13072/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_13072","id":"gutenberg_13072","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13072","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Conduct of life"],"text":"THE MENTAL EFFICIENCY SERIES\n\n                    COMMON SENSE HOW TO EXERCISE IT\n\n                           By YORITOMO-TASHI\n\n                      ANNOTATED BY: B. DANGENNES\n\n        TRANSLATED BY: MME. LEON J. BERTHELOT DE LA BOILEVEBIB\n\n                                 1916\n\n\n\n\nANNOUNCEMENT\n\n\nThe quality popularly designated as \"Common Sense\" comprehends, according\nto the modern point of view, the sound judgment of mankind when\nreflecting upon problems of truth and conduct without bias from logical\nsubtleties or selfish interests. It is one of Nature's priceless gifts;\nan income in itself, it is as valuable as its application is rare.\n\nHow often we hear the expression \"Why, I never thought of that!\" Why?\nBecause we have failed to exercise Common Sense--that genius of mankind,\nwhich, when properly directed is the one attribute that will carry man\nand his kind successfully through the perplexities of life. Common Sense\nis as a plant of delicate growth, in need of careful training and\ncontinued watching so that it may bear fruit at all seasons. In the\nteachings that follow, the venerable Shogun, Yoritomo-Tashi, points out\nthat Common Sense is a composite product consisting of (1) Perception;\n(2) Memory; (3) Thought; (4) Alertness; (5) Deduction; (6) Foresight; (7)\nReason, and (8) Judgment. Discussing each of these separately, he\nindicates their relations and how they may be successfully employed.\nFurther, he warns one against the dangers that lurk in moral inertia,\nindifference, sentimentality, egotism, etc.\n\nCommon Sense is a quality that must be developed if it is to be utilized\nto the full of its practical value. Indispensable to this development are\nsuch qualifications--(1) Ability to grasp situations; (2) Ability to\nconcentrate the mind; (3) Keenness of perception; (4) Exercise of\nthe reasoning power; (5) Power of approximation; (6) Calmness;\n(7) Self-control, etc. Once mastered, these qualifications enable one to\nreap the reward of a fine and an exalted sense, and of a practical common\nsense which sees things as they are and does things as they should be\ndone.\n\nThe desire for knowledge, like the thirst for wealth, increases by\nacquisition, but as Bishop Lee has told us, \"Knowledge without common\nsense is folly; without method it is waste; without kindness it is\nfanaticism; without religion it is death.\" But, Dean Farrar added: \"With\ncommon sense, it is wisdom; with method it is power; with charity\nbeneficence; with religion it is virtue, life, and peace.\"\n\nIn these pages, Yoritomo-Tashi teaches his readers how to overcome such\ndefects of the understanding as may beset them. He shows them how to\nacquire and develop common sense and practical sense, how to apply them\nin their daily lives, and how to utilize them profitably in the\nbusiness world.\n\nTo him common sense is the crown of all faculties. Exercised vigilantly,\nit leads to progress and prosperity, therefore, says he \"enthusiasm is as\nbrittle as crystal, but common sense is durable as brass.\"\n\nTHE PUBLISHERS.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nWhy should I hesitate to express the pleasure I felt on learning that the\npublic, already deeply interested in the teachings of Yoritomo-Tashi,\ndesired to be made familiar with them in a new form?\n\nThis knowledge meant many interesting and pleasant hours of work in\nprospect for me, recalling the time passed in an atmosphere of that peace\nwhich gives birth to vibrations of healthful thoughts whose radiance\nvitalizes the soul.\n\nIt was also with a zeal, intensified by memories of the little deserted\nroom in the provincial museum, where silence alone could lend rhythm to\nmeditation, that I turned over again and again the leaves of those\nprecious manuscripts, translating the opinions of him whose keen and\nornate psychology we have so often enjoyed together.\n\nIt was with the enthusiastic attention of the disciple that once more I\nscanned the pages, where the broadest and most humane compassion allies\nitself with those splendid virtues: energy, will and reason.\n\nFor altho Yoritomo glorifies the will and energy under all their aspects,\nhe knows also how to find, in his heart, that tenderness which transforms\nthese forces, occasionally somewhat brutal, into powers for good, whose\npresence are always an indication of favorable results.\n\nHe knows how to clothe his teachings in fable and appealing legend, and\nhis exotic soul, so near and yet so far, reminds one of a flower, whose\nfamiliar aspect is transmuted into rare perfume.\n\nBy him the sternest questions are stripped of their hostile aspects and\npresent themselves in the alluring form of the simplest allegories of\nstriking poetic intensity.\n\nWhen reading his works, one recalls unconsciously the orations of the\nancient philosophers, delivered in those dazzling gardens, luxuriant in\nsunlight and fragrant with flowers.\n\nIn this far-away past, one sees also the silhouette of a majestic figure,\nwhose school of philosophy became a religion, which interested the world\nbecause it spoke both of love and goodness.\n\nBut in spite of this fact, the doctrines of Yoritomo are of an\nimaginative type. His kingdom belongs to this world, and his theories\nseek less the joys of the hereafter than of that tangible happiness which\nis found in the realization of the manly virtues and in that effort to\ncreate perfect harmony from which flows perfect peace.\n\nHe takes us by the hand, in order to lead us to the center of that Eden\nof Knowledge where we have already discovered the art of persuasion, and\nthat art, most difficult of all to acquire--the mastery of timidity.\n\nFollowing him, we shall penetrate once more this Eden, that we may study\nwith Yoritomo the manner of acquiring this art--somewhat unattractive\nperhaps but essentially primordial--called Common Sense.\n\n\nB. DANGENNES.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nAnnouncement\n\nPreface\n\n    I. Common Sense: What Is It?\n\n   II. The Fight Against Illusion\n\n  III. The Development of the Reasoning Power\n\n   IV. Common Sense and Impulse\n\n    V. The Dangers of Sentimentality\n\n   VI. The Utility of Common Sense in Daily Life\n\n  VII. Power of Deduction\n\n VIII. How to Acquire Common Sense\n\n   IX. Common Sense and Action\n\n    X. The Most Thorough Business Man\n\n   XI. Common Sense and Self-Control\n\n  XII. Common Sense Does Not Exclude Great Aspirations\n\n\n\n\nLESSON I\n\nCOMMON SENSE: WHAT IS IT?\n\n\nOne beautiful evening, Yoritomo-Tashi was strolling in the gardens of\nhis master, Lang-Ho, listening to the wise counsels which he knew so\nwell how to give in all attractiveness of allegory, when, suddenly, he\npaused to describe a part of the land where the gardener's industry was\nless apparent.\n\nHere parasitic plants had, by means of their tendrils, crept up the\nshrubbery and stifled the greater part of its flowers.\n\nOnly a few of them reached the center of the crowded bunches of the grain\nstalks and of the trailing vines that interlaced the tiny bands which\nheld them against the wall.\n\nOne plant alone, of somber blossom and rough leaves, was able to flourish\neven in close proximity to the wild verdure. It seemed that this plant\nhad succeeded in avoiding the dangerous entanglements of the poisonous\nplants because of its tenacious and fearless qualities, at the same time\nits shadow was not welcome to the useless and noxious creeping plants.\n\n\"Behold, my son,\" said the Sage, \"and learn how to understand the\nteachings of nature: The parasitic plants represent negligence against\nthe force of which the best of intentions vanish.\"\n\nEnergy, however, succeeds in overcoming these obstacles which increase\ndaily; it marks out its course among entanglements and rises from the\nmidst of the most encumbered centers, beautiful and strong.\n\nAmbition and audacity show themselves also after having passed through\nthousands of difficulties and having overcome them all.\n\nCommon sense rarely needs to strive; it unfolds itself in an atmosphere\nof peace, far from the tumult of obstructions and snares that are not\neasily avoided.\n\nIts flower is less alluring than many others, but it never allows itself\nto be completely hidden through the wild growth of neighboring branches.\n\nIt dominates them easily, because it has always kept them at a distance.\n\nModest but self-sustaining, it is seen blossoming far from the struggles\nwhich always retard the blossoming of plants and which render their\nflowering slower and, at times, short-lived.\n\nA most absurd prejudice has occasionally considered common sense to be an\ninferior quality of mind.\n\nThis error arises from the fact that it can adapt itself as well to the\nmost elevated conceptions as to the most elemental mentalities.\n\nTo those who possess common sense is given the faculty of placing\neverything in its proper rank.\n\nIt does not underestimate the value of sentiments by attributing to them\nan exaggerated importance.\n\nIt permits us to consider fictitious reasons with reservation and of\nresolutely rejecting those that resort to the weapons of hypocrisy.\n\nPersons who cultivate common sense never refuse to admit their errors.\n\nOne may truly affirm that they are rarely far from the truth, because\nthey practise directness of thought and force themselves never to deviate\nfrom this mental attitude.\n\nAbandoning for a moment his favorite demonstration by means of symbolism,\nYoritomo said to us:\n\n\"Common sense should be thus defined:\n\n\"It is a central sense, toward which all impressions converge and unite\nin one sentiment--the desire for the truth.\n\n\"For people who possess common sense, everything is summed up in one\nunique perception:\n\n\"The love of directness and simplicity.\n\n\"All thoughts are found to be related; the preponderance of these two\nsentiments makes itself felt in all resolutions, and chiefly in the\nreflections which determine them.\n\n\"Common sense permits us to elude fear which always seizes those whose\njudgment vacillates; it removes the defiance of the Will and indicates\ninfallibly the correct attitude to assume.\"\n\nAnd Yoritomo, whose mind delighted in extending his observations to the\nsociological side of the question, adds:\n\n\"Common sense varies in its character, according to surroundings and\neducation.\n\n\"The common sense of one class of people is not the same as that of a\nneighboring class.\n\n\"Certain customs, which seem perfectly natural to Japan would offend\nthose belonging to the western world, just as our Nippon prejudices would\nfind themselves ill at ease among certain habits customary among\nEuropeans.\"\n\n\"Common sense,\" he continues, \"takes good care not to assail violently\nthose beliefs which tradition has transmuted into principles.\n\n\"However, if direct criticism of those beliefs causes common sense to be\nregarded unfavorably, it will be welcomed with the greatest reserve and\nwill maintain a certain prudence relative to this criticism, which will\nbe equivalent to a proffered reproach.\n\n\"Common sense often varies as to external aspects, dependent upon\neducation, for it is evident that a diamio (Japanese prince) can not\njudge of a subject in the same way as would a man belonging to the lowest\nclass of society.\n\n\"The same object can become desirable or undesirable according to the\nrank it occupies.\n\n\"Must one believe that common sense is excluded from two such\nincompatible opinions?\n\n\"No, not at all. An idea can be rejected or accepted by common sense\nwithout violating the principles of logic in the least.\n\n\"If, as one frequently sees, an idea be unacceptable because of having\nbeen presented before those belonging to a particular environment, common\nsense, by applying its laws, will recognize that the point of view must\nbe changed before the idea can become acceptable.\"\n\nAnd again, Yoritomo calls our attention to a peculiar circumstance.\n\n\"Common sense,\" he says, \"is the art of resolving questions, not the art\nof posing them.\n\n\"When taking the initiative it is rarely on trial.\n\n\"But the moment it is a case of applying practically that which\ningenuity, science or genius have invented, it intervenes in the happiest\nand most decisive manner.\n\n\"Common sense is the principle element of discernment.\n\n\"Therefore, without this quality, it is impossible to judge either of the\nproposition or the importance of the subject.\n\n\"It is only with the aid of common sense that it is possible to\ndistinguish the exact nature of the proposition, submitted for a just\nappreciation, and to render a solution of it which conforms to perfect\naccuracy of interpretation.\n\n\"The last point is essential and has its judicial function in all the\ncircumstances of life. Without accuracy, common sense can not be\nsatisfactorily developed, because it finds itself continually shocked by\nincoherency, resulting from a lack of exactness in the expression of\nopinions.\"\n\nIf we wish to know what the principal qualities are which form common\nsense, we shall turn over a few pages and we shall read:\n\n\"Common sense is the synthesis of many sentiments, all of which converge\nin forming it.\n\n\"The first of these sentiments is reason.\n\n\"Then follows moderation.\n\n\"To these one may add:\n\n\"The faculty of penetration;\n\n\"The quality consistency.\n\n\"Then, wisdom, which permits us to profit by the lessons of experience.\n\n\"A number of other qualities must be added to these, in order to complete\nthe formation of common sense; but, altho important, they are only the\nsatellites of those we have just named.\n\n\"Reason is really indispensable to the projection of healthy thoughts.\n\n\"The method of reasoning should be the exhaustive study of minute detail,\nof which we shall speak later.\n\n\"For the moment we shall content ourselves by indicating, along the broad\nlines of argument, what is meant by this word reason.\n\n\"Reasoning is the art of fixing the relativeness of things.\n\n\"It is by means of reasoning that it is possible to differentiate events\nand to indicate to what category they belong.\n\n\"It is the habit of reasoning to determine that which it is wise to\nundertake, thus permitting us to judge what should be set aside.\n\n\"How could we guide ourselves through life without the beacon-light of\nreason? It pierces the darkness of social ignorance, it helps us to\ndistinguish vaguely objects heretofore plunged in obscurity, and which\nwill always remain invisible to those who are unprovided with this\nindispensable accessory--the gift of reasoning.\n\n\"He who ventures in the darkness and walks haphazard, finds himself\nsuddenly confronted by obstacles which he was unable to foresee.\n\n\"He finds himself frightened by forms whose nature he cannot define, and\nis often tempted to attribute silhouettes of assassins to branches of\ntrees, instead of recognizing the real culprit who is watching him from\nthe corner of the wild forest.\n\n\"Life, as well as the wildest wilderness, is strewn with pitfalls. To\nthink of examining it rapidly, without the aid of that torch called\nreason, would be imitating the man of whom we have just spoken.\n\n\"Many are the mirages, which lead us to mistake dim shadows for\ndisquieting realities, unless we examine them critically, for otherwise\nwe can never ascribe to them their true value.\n\n\"Certain incidents, which seem at first sight to be of small importance,\nassume a primordial value when we have explained them by means of\nreasoning.\n\n\"To reason about a thing is to dissect it, to examine it from every\npoint of view before adopting it, before deferring to it or before\nrejecting it; in one word, to reason about a thing is to act with\nconscious volition, which is one of the phases essential to the conquest\nof common sense.\n\n\"This principle conceded, it then becomes a question of seriously\nstudying the method of reasoning, which we propose to do in the following\nmanner but first it is necessary to be convinced of this truth.\"\n\nWithout reason there is no common sense.\n\nYoritomo teaches us that, altho moderation is only of secondary\nimportance, it is still indispensable to the attainment of common sense.\n\nIt is moderation which incites us to restrain our impatience, to silence\nour inexplicable antipathies and to put a break on our tempestuous\nenthusiasms.\n\nCan one judge of the aspect of a garden while the tempest is twisting the\nbranches of the trees, tearing off the tendrils of the climbing vines,\nscattering the petals of the flowers and spoiling the corollas already in\nfull bloom?\n\nAnd now, Yoritomo, who loves to illustrate his teachings by expressive\nfigures of speech, tells us the following story.\n\n\"A Japanese prince, on awakening, one day, demanded lazily of his\nservants what kind of weather it was, but he forbade them to raise the\nawnings which kept a cool, dim light in his room and shielded his eyes\nfrom the strong light from without. The two servants left him reclining\nupon his divan and went into the adjoining room, where the stained-glass\nwindows were not hung with curtains.\n\n\"One of them, putting his face close to a yellow-tinted pane of glass,\nexclaimed in admiration of the beautiful garden, bathed in the early\nmorning sunlight.\n\n\"The second one, directing his gaze to a dark blue pane and, looking\nthrough the center, remarked to his companion, I see no sunshine, the day\nis dreary and the clouds cast gloomy shadows upon the horizon.\n\n\"Each one returned to relate their impressions of the weather, and\nthe prince wondered at the different visions, unable to understand\nthe reason.\"\n\nThere, concluded the Shogun, that is what happens to people who do not\npractise moderation.\n\nThose, who see things through the medium of enthusiasm refuse to\nrecognize that they could be deprived of brilliancy and beauty.\n\nThe others, those who look upon things from a pessimistic standpoint,\nnever find anything in them save pretexts for pouring out to their\nhearers tales of woe and misery.\n\nAll find themselves deceptively allured; some rush toward illusion,\nothers do not wish to admit the positive chances for success, and both\nlacking moderation, they start from a basis of false premises from which\nthey draw deplorable conclusions, thus defeating future success.\n\nThe spirit of penetration, according to the old Nippon philosopher, is\nnot always a natural gift. \"It is,\" said he, \"a quality which certain\npeople possess in a very high degree but which in spite this fact should\nbe strengthened by will and discipline.\n\n\"One can easily acquire this faculty by endeavoring to foresee the\nsolution of contemporary events; or at least try to explain the hidden\nreasons which have produced them.\n\n\"Great effects are produced, many times, from seemingly unimportant\ncauses, and it is, above all, to the significant details that the spirit\nof penetration should give unceasing and undivided attention.\n\n\"Everything around us can serve as a subject for careful study; political\nevents, incidents which interest family or friends, all may serve as just\nso many themes for earnest reflection.\n\n\"It is always preferable to confine this analysis to subjects in which we\nhave no personal interest; thus we shall accustom ourselves to judge of\npeople and things dispassionately and impersonally. This is the quality\nof mind necessary to the perfect development of penetration.\n\n\"If, for any reason, passion should create confusion of ideas, clearness\nof understanding would be seriously compromised and firmness of judgment,\nby deteriorating, would cast aside the manifestation of common sense.\n\n\"The spirit consistency is perhaps more difficult to conquer, for it is a\ncombination of many of the qualities previously mentioned.\n\n\"Its inspiration is drawn from the reasoning faculty, it cannot exist\nwithout moderation and implies a certain amount of penetration, because\nit must act under the authority of conviction.\n\n\"If you strike long enough in the same place on the thickest piece of\niron, in time it will become as thin as the most delicate kakemono [a\npicture which hangs in Japanese homes].\n\n\"It is impossible to define the spirit of consistency more accurately.\n\n\"It is closely related to perseverance, but can not be confounded with\nit, because the attributes of consistency have their origin in logic and\nreason which does not produce one act alone but a series of acts\nsometimes dependent, always inferred.\n\n\"The spirit of consistency banishes all thought derogatory to the subject\nin question; it is the complete investiture of sentiments, all converging\ntoward a unique purpose.\"\n\nThis purpose can be of very great importance and the means of attainment\nmultiform, but the dominant idea will always direct the continuous\nachievements; under their different manifestations--and these at times\ncontradictory--they will never be other than the emanation of a direct\nthought, whose superior authority is closely united to the final success.\n\nWisdom, continued the philosopher, should be mentioned here only as the\nforerunner which permits us to analyze experience.\n\nIt is from this never-ending lesson which life teaches us that the wisdom\nof old age is learned.\n\nBut is it really necessary to reach the point of decrepitude, in order to\nprofit by an experience, actually useless at that time, as is always a\nposthumous conquest.\n\n\"Is it not much better to compel its attainment when the hair is black\nand the heart capable of hope?\n\n\"Why give to old age alone the privileges of wisdom and experience?\n\n\"It is high time to combat so profound an error.\n\n\"Is it not a cruel irony which renders such a gift useless?\n\n\"Of what benefit is wisdom resulting from experience if it cannot\npreserve us from the unfortunate seduction of youth?\n\n\"Why should its beauty be unveiled only to those who can no longer profit\nby it?\" This is the opinion of Yoritomo, who says:\n\n\"What would be thought of one who prided himself on possessing bracelets\nwhen he had lost his two arms in war?\n\n\"It is, therefore, necessary, not only to encourage young people to\nprofit by lessons of wisdom and experience, but, still further, to\nindicate to them how they can accomplish the result of these lessons.\n\n\"It is certain that he who can recall a long life ought to understand\nbetter than the young man all the pitfalls with which it is strewn.\n\n\"But does he always judge of it without bias or prejudice?\n\n\"Does he not find acceptable pretexts for excusing his past faults and\ndoes he not exaggerate the rewards for excellence, which have accorded\nhim advantages, due at times to chance or to the force of circumstances?\n\n\"Finally, the old man can not judge of the sentiments which he held at\ntwenty years of age, unless it be by the aid of reminiscences, more or\nless fleeting, and an infinitely attenuated intensity of representation.\n\n\"Emotive perception being very much weakened, the integrity of memory\nmust be less exact.\n\n\"Then, in the recession of years, some details, which were at times\nfactors of the initial idea, are less vivid, thus weakening the power of\nreason which was the excuse, the pretext, or the origin of the act.\n\n\"This is why, altho we may honor the wisdom of the aged, it is well to\nacquire it at a time when we may use it as a precious aid.\n\n\"To those who insist that nothing is equivalent to personal experience,\nwe shall renew our argument, begging them to meditate on the preceding\nlines, drawing their attention to the fact that a just opinion can only\nbe formed when personal sentiment is excluded from the discussion.\n\n\"Is it, then, necessary to have experienced pain in order to prevent\nor cure it?\n\n\"The majority of physicians have never been killed by the disease\nthey treat.\n\n\"Does this fact prevent them from combatting disease victoriously?\n\n\"And since we are speaking of common sense we shall not hesitate to\ninvoke it in this instance, and all will agree that it should dictate\nour reply.\n\n\"Then why could we not do for the soul that which can be done for the\nbody?\n\n\"It is first from books, then from the lessons of life that physicians\nlearn the principles underlying their knowledge of disease and its\nhealing remedies.\n\n\"Is it absolutely indispensable for us to poison ourselves in order to\nknow that such and such a plant is harmful and that another contains the\nhealing substance which destroys the effects of the poison?\n\n\"We may all possess wisdom if we are willing to be persuaded that the\nexperience of others is as useful as our own.\"\n\nThe events which multiply about us, Yoritomo says, ought to be, for each\nmaster, an opportunity for awakening in the soul of his disciples a\nperfect reasoning power, starting from the inception of the premises to\narrive at the conclusions of all arguments.\n\nFrom the repetition of events, from their correlation, from their\nequivalence, from their parallelism, knowledge will be derived and will\nbe productive of good results, in proportion as egotistical sentiment is\neliminated from them; and slowly, with the wisdom acquired by experience,\ncommon sense will manifest itself tranquil and redoubtable, working\nalways for the accomplishment of good as does everything which is the\nemblem of strength and peace.\n\n\n\n\nLESSON II\n\nTHE FIGHT AGAINST ILLUSION\n\n\nCommon Sense such as we have just described it, according to Yoritomo, is\nthe absolute antithesis of dreamy imagination, it is the sworn enemy of\nillusion, against which it struggles from the moment of contact.\n\nCommon sense is solid, illusion is yielding, also illusion never\nissues victorious from a combat with it; during a struggle illusion\nendeavors vainly to display its subterfuges and cunning; illusions\ndisappear one by one, crusht by the powerful arms of their terrible\nadversary--common sense.\n\n\"The worship of illusion,\" says Yoritomo, \"presents certain dangers to\nthe integrity of judgment, which, under such influence, falsifies the\ncomparative faculty, and sways decision to the side of neutrality.\n\n\"This kind of mental half-sleep is extremely detrimental to\nmanifestations of reason, because this torpor excludes it from imaginary\nconceptions.\n\n\"Little by little the lethargy caused by this intellectual paralysis\nproduces the effect of fluidic contagion over all our faculties.\n\n\"Energy, which ought to be the principle factor in our resolutions,\nbecomes feeble and powerless at the point where we no longer care to feel\nits influence.\n\n\"The sentiment of effort exists no longer, since we are pleased to\nresolve all difficulties without it.\n\n\"In this inconstant state of mind, common sense, after wandering a moment\nwithdraws itself, and we find that we are delivered over to all the\nperils of imagination.\n\n\"Nothing that we see thus confusedly is found on the plane which belongs\nto common sense; the ideas, associated by a capricious tie, bind and\nunbind themselves, without imposing the necessity of a solution.\n\n\"The man who allows himself to be influenced by vague dreams,\" adds the\nShogun, \"must, if he does not react powerfully, bid farewell to common\nsense and reason; for he will experience so great a charm in forgetting,\neven for one moment, the reality of life, that he will seek to prolong\nthis blest moment.\n\n\"He will renounce logic, whose conclusions are, at times, opposed to his\ndesires, and he will plunge himself into that false delight of awakened\ndreams, or, as some say, day-dreams.\n\n\"Those who defend this artificial conception of happiness, like to\ncompare people of common sense to heavy infantry soldiers, who march\nalong through stony roads, while they depict themselves as pleasant\nbird-fanciers, giving flight to the fantastic bearers of wings.\n\n\"But they do not take into account the fact that the birds, for whom they\nopen the cage, fly away without the intention of returning, leaving them\nthus deceived and deprived of the birds, while the rough infantry\nsoldiers, after many hardships, reach the desired end which they had\nproposed to attain, thus realizing the joys of conquest.\n\n\"There they find the rest and security, which the possessors of fugitive\nbirds will never know.\n\n\"Those who cultivate common sense will always ignore the collapses which\nfollow the disappearance of illusions.\n\n\"How many men have suffered thus uselessly!\n\n\"And what is more stupid than a sorrow, voluntarily imposed, when it can\nnot be productive of any good?\n\n\"Men can not be too strongly warned against the tendency of embellishing\neverything that concerns the heart-life, and this is the inclination of\nmost people.\n\n\"The causes of this propensity are many and the need for that which\nastounds is not the only cause to be mentioned.\n\n\"Indolence is never a stranger to illusion.\n\n\"It is so delightful to foresee a solution which conforms to our desires!\n\n\"For certain natures, stained with moral atrophy, it is far sweeter to\nhope for that which will be produced without pain.\n\n\"One begins by accelerating this achievement, so earnestly desired, by\nusing all the will-power, and one becomes accustomed progressively to\nregard desires as a reality, and, aided by indolence, man discounts in\nadvance an easy success.\n\n\"False enthusiasm, or rather enthusiasm without deliberate reflection,\nalways enters into these illusions, which are accompanied by persuasion\nand never combatted by common sense.\n\n\"Vanity is never foreign to these false ideas, which are always of a\nnature to flatter one's amour propre.\n\n\"We love to rejoice beforehand in the triumph which we believe will win\nand, aided by mental frivolity, we do not wish to admit that success can\nbe doubted.\n\n\"The dislike of making an effort, however, would quickly conceal, with\nits languishing voice, the wise words of common sense, if we would listen\nmomentarily to them.\n\n\"And, lastly, it is necessary to consider credulity, to which, in our\nopinion, is accorded a place infinitely more honorable than it deserves.\"\n\nAnd now the sage, Yoritomo, establishes the argument which, by the aid of\ncommon sense, characterized these opinions.\n\nAccording to him, \"It does not belong to new and vibrating souls, as many\nwould have us believe.\n\n\"When credulity does not proceed from inveterate stupidity, it is always\nthe result of apathy and weakness.\n\n\"Unhappiness and misfortune attend those who are voluntarily feeble.\n\n\"Their defect deprived them of the joy derived from happy efforts. They\nwill be the prey of duplicity and untruth.\n\n\"They are the vanquished in life, and scarcely deserve the pity of the\nconqueror; for their defeat lacks grandeur, since it has never been\naurioled by the majestic strength of conflict.\"\n\nFollowing this, the Shogun speaks to us of those whom he calls the ardent\nseekers after illusion.\n\nOne evening he related the following story: \"Some men started off for an\nisland, which they perceived in the distance.\n\n\"It looked like a large, detached red spot, amid the flaming rays of the\nsetting sun, and the men told of a thousand wonders about this unknown\nland, as yet untrodden by the foot of man.\n\n\"The first days of the journey were delightful. The oars lay in the\nbottom of the boat untouched, and they just allowed themselves to drift\nwith the tide. They disembarked, singing to the murmur of the waters, and\ngathered the fruits growing on the shores, to appease their hunger.\n\n\"But the stream, which was bearing them onward, did not retain long its\nlimpidity and repose; the eddies soon entrapped the tiny bark and dragged\nthe men overboard.\n\n\"Some, looking backward, were frightened at the thought of ascending the\nriver, which had become so tempestuous.\n\n\"Escaping the wreckage of the boat as best they could, they entrusted\nthemselves again to the fury of the waters.\n\n\"They had to suffer from cold and hunger, for they were far from shore,\nand as, in their imagination, the island was very near, they had\nneglected to furnish themselves with the necessities of life.\n\n\"At last, after the fatigues which forethought would have prevented, they\nfound themselves one evening, at sundown, at the base of a great rock,\nbathed in the rosy light of the departing sun.\n\n\"This, then, was the island of their dreams.\n\n\"Tired out and exhausted from lack of food, they had only the strength to\nlie down upon the inhospitable rock, there to die!\n\n\"The disappearance of the illusion, having destroyed their courage and\nhaving struck them with the sword of despair, the rock of reality had\nproved destructive of their bodies and souls.\n\n\"The moral of this story easily unfolds itself.\n\n\"If the seekers after illusions had admitted common sense to their\ndeliberations, they would certainly have learned to know the nature of\nthe enchanted isle, and they would have taken good care not to start out\non their journey which must terminate by such a deception.\n\n\"Would they not have taken the necessary precaution to prevent all the\ndelays attendant upon travels of adventure, and would they have entrusted\ntheir lives to so frail a skiff, if they had acquired common sense?\"\n\nWe must conclude, with Yoritomo, that illusion could often be transformed\ninto happy reality if it were better understood, and if, instead of\nlooking upon it through the dreams of our imagination, we applied\nourselves to the task of eliminating the fluid vapors which envelop it,\nthat we might clothe it anew with the garment of common sense.\n\nMany enterprises have been considered as illusions because we have\nneglected to awaken the possibilities which lay dormant within them.\n\nThe initial thought, extravagant as it may appear, brings with it, at\ntimes, facilities of realization that a judgment dictated by common sense\ncan alone make us appreciate.\n\nHe who knows how to keep a strict watch over himself will be able to\nescape the causes of disillusion, which lead us through fatal paths of\nerror, to the brink of despair.\n\n\"That which is above all to be shunned,\" said the philosopher, \"is the\nencroachment of discouragement, the result of repeated failures.\n\n\"Rare are those who wish to admit their mistakes.\n\n\"In the structure of the mind, inaccuracy brings a partial deviation from\nthe truth, and it does not take long for this slight error to generalize\nitself, if not corrected by its natural reformer--common sense.\n\n\"But how many, among those who suffer from these unhappy illusions, are\napt to recognize them as such?\n\n\"It would, however, be a precious thing for us to admit the causes\nwhich have led us to such a sorry result, by never permitting them to\noccur again.\n\n\"This would be the only way for the victims of illusion to preserve the\nlife of that element of success and happiness known as hope.\n\n\"Because of seeing so often the good destroyed, we wish to believe no\nmore in it as inherent in our being, and rather than suffer repeatedly\nfrom its disappearance, we prefer to smother it before perfect\ndevelopment.\n\n\"The greater number of skeptics are only the unavowed lovers of illusion;\ntheir desires, never being those capable of realization, they have lost\nthe habit of hoping for a favorable termination of any sentiment.\n\n\"The lack of common sense does not allow them to understand the folly of\ntheir enterprise, and rather than seek the causes of their habitual\nfailures, they prefer to attack God and man, both of whom they hold\nresponsible for all their unhappiness.\n\n\"They are willingly ironical, easily become pessimists, and villify life,\nwithout desiring to perceive that it reserved as many smiles for them as\nthe happy people whom they envy.\n\n\"All these causes of disappointment can only be attributed to the lack of\nequilibrium of the reasoning power and, above all, to the absence of\ncommon sense, hence we cannot judge of relative values.\n\n\"To give a definite course to the plans which we form is to prepare the\nhappy termination of them.\n\n\"This is also the way to banish seductive illusion, the devourer of\nbeautiful ambitions and youthful aspirations.\"\n\nAnd, with his habitual sense of the practical in life, Yoritomo adds the\nfollowing:\n\n\"There are, however, some imaginations which can not be controlled by the\npower of reasoning, and which, in spite of everything, escape toward the\nunlimited horizons of the dream.\n\n\"It would be in vain to think of shutting them up in the narrow prison\nwalls of strict reason; they would die wishing to attempt an escape.\n\n\"To these we can prescribe the dream under its most august form, that\nof science.\n\n\"Each inventor has pursued an illusion, but those whose names have lived\nto reach our recognition, have caught a glimpse of the vertiginous course\nthey were following, and no longer have allowed themselves to get too far\naway from their base--science.\n\n\"Yes, illusion can be beautiful, on condition that it is not constantly\ndebilitated.\n\n\"To make it beautiful we must be its master, then we may attempt\nits conquest.\n\n\"It is thus that all great men act; before adopting an illusion, as\ntruth, they have assured themselves of the means by the aid of which they\nwere permitted first to hope for its transformation and afterward be\ncertain of their power to discipline it.\n\n\"Illusion then changes its name and becomes the Ideal.\n\n\"Instead of remaining an inaccessible myth, it is transformed into an\nentity for the creation of good.\n\n\"It is no longer the effort to conquer the impossible, which endeavor\nsaps our vital forces; it is a contingency which study and common sense\nstrip of all aleatory principles, in order to give a form which becomes\nmore tangible and more definite every day.\n\n\"We have nothing more to do with sterile efforts toward gaining an object\nwhich fades from view and disappears as one approaches it.\n\n\"It is no longer the painful reaching out after an object always growing\nmore indistinct as we draw near it.\n\n\"It is through conscious and unremitting effort that we attain the\nhappy expression of successful endeavor and realize the best in life,\nfor slow ascension in winning this best leaves no room for satiety in\nthis noble strife.\n\n\"We must pity those who live for an illusion as well as those whose\nimagination has not known how to create an ideal, whose beauty illumines\ntheir efforts.\n\n\"It is the triumph of common sense to accomplish this transformation and\nto banish empty reveries, replacing them by creating a desire for the\nbest, which each one can satisfy--without destroying it.\n\n\"The day when this purpose is accomplished, illusion, definitely\nconquered, will cease to haunt the mind of those whom common sense has\nillumined; vagaries will make place for reason and terrible disillusion\nwill follow its chief (whose qualities never rise above mediocrity) into\nhis retreat, and allow the flower of hope to blossom in the souls\nalready filled with peace--that quality which is born of reason and\ncommon sense.\"\n\n\n\n\nLESSON III\n\nTHE DEVELOPMENT OF THE REASONING POWER\n\n\nWhen reading certain passages in the manuscripts of Yoritomo, one is\nforcibly reminded of the familiar phrase: \"Nothing is definitely finished\namong men, for each thing stops only to begin again.\"\n\nHe says, \"That many centuries before the great minds constructed altars\nto the goddess of Reason, they were in search of a divinity to replace\nthe one they had just destroyed.\n\n\"If it were proposed to me to build temples which would synthesize my\ndevotion with certain sentiments, my desire would be that those dedicated\nto the Will and to Reason should dominate all others, for then they would\nbe under the protection of powers for good.\"\n\nIn a few pages further on he insists again and again upon the necessity\nof developing the worship of reason.\n\n\"Reasoning,\" he continues, \"is a divinity, around which gravitate a whole\nworld of gods, important but inferior to it.\n\n\"Among this people of these idols, so justly revered, there is one god\nwhich occupies a place apart from the others.\n\n\"This god is Common Sense, which gave birth to Reason, and has always\nbeen its faithful companion.\n\n\"It is, in reality, the controlling force exercising its power to guard\nreason against the predominating character and nefarious tendencies\ncreated by self-interest.\n\n\"Common sense compels reason to admit principles whose justice it has\nalready recognized, and, at the same time, incites reason to reject those\nwhose absurdity it has demonstrated.\n\n\"Common sense allies itself with reason, in order to make that selection\nof ideas which personal interest can either set aside entirely or modify\nby illogical inference.\n\n\"Reason obeys certain laws, all of which can be united in one\nsentiment--common sense.\"\n\nThis statement could be illustrated symbolically by comparing its truth\nto a fan, whose blades converge toward a central point where they\nremain fixt.\n\nApplying the precept to the picture, the old Shogun gives the design\nwhich we are faithfully copying.\n\n\"In this ideal fan,\" explains Yoritomo, \"not only the true reproduction\nof the qualities directing the progress of knowledge must be perceived,\nbut the symbol of their development must be traced.\n\n\"All of these qualities are born of common sense, to which they are\nclosely allied, unfolding and disclosing a luminous radiance.\n\n\"Altho each one may have its autonomy, they never separate, and, even as\na fan from which one blade has disappeared can only remain an imperfect\nobject little to be desired, even so, the symbolic fan of reasoning, when\nit does not unite all the required qualities, becomes a mutilated power,\nwhich can only betray the destiny originally attributed to it.\n\n\"Consequently, starting from common sense as the central point of\nreasoning, we find, first, perception.\n\n\"This is the action by which exterior things are brought near to us.\n\n\"Perception is essentially visual and auditory, altho it influences all\nour senses.\n\n\"For example, the fact of tasting a fruit is a perception.\n\n\"The seeing of a landscape is equally one.\n\n\"The hearing of a song is also a perception.\n\n\"In a word, everything which presents itself to us, coming in\ncontact with one of our senses, is a perception; otherwise, the\ninception of an idea.\n\n\"This is the first degree of reasoning.\n\n\"Immediately following is memory, without which nothing could be proved.\n\n\"It is memory, which, by renewing the motive power of reason, allows us\nto judge of the proportion of things, grasped by the senses in the\npresent as related to those which come to us from the past.\n\n\"Without memory it would be impossible to make a mental comparison.\n\n\"It would be most difficult to determine the true nature of an event,\nannounced by perception, if an analogous sensation, previously\nexperienced, had not just permitted us to classify it by close\nexamination or by differentiating it.\n\n\"Memory is a partial resurrection of a past life, whose reconstruction\nhas just permitted us to attribute a true value to the phases of\nexistence.\n\n\"It is in preserving the memory of things that we are called upon to\ncompare them and then to judge of them.\n\n\"Thought is produced immediately after perception, and the recollection,\nvery often automatic, that it creates within us.\n\n\"It is the inception of the idea which it engenders by a series of\nresults.\n\n\"Thought permits the mind to exercise its judgment without allowing\nitself to be influenced by the greatness or humility of the idea.\n\n\"By virtue of corresponding recollections, it will associate the present\nperception with the past representations, and will take an extension,\nmore or less pronounced, according to the degree of intellectuality of\nthe thinker, and according to the importance of the object of its\nreflections.\n\n\"But rarely does the idea present itself alone.\n\n\"One thought almost always produces the manifestation of similar\nthoughts, which group themselves around the first idea as birds of the\nsame race direct their flight toward the same country.\n\n\"Thought is the manifestation of the intellectual life; it palpitates in\nthe brain of men as does the heart in the breast.\n\n\"It is thought which distinguishes men from animals, who have only\ninstinct to guide them.\n\n\"It can be admitted, however, that this instinct is a kind of obscure\nthought for these inferior beings, from which reflection is eliminated,\nor, at least, reveals itself only as a vassal of material appetite.\n\n\"But with creatures who have intelligence, thought is a superior faculty,\nwhich aids the soul to free itself from the bondage of vulgar and limited\nimpressions.\n\n\"When perception, memory, and thought unite to form judgment, activity of\nmind will become necessary, in order to accelerate the production of\nideas in extending the field of imagination.\n\n\"Moral inertia is the most deplorable of all defects; it retards\nintellectual growth and hinders the development of personality.\n\n\"It is, in this understanding, the enemy of common sense, for it will\nadmit voluntarily a reasoning power, existing per se, rather than make\nthe necessary effort which will set free the truth and constitute an\nindividual opinion.\n\n\"Vulgarity is, then, almost always the sign of mental sloth.\n\n\"It is not infrequent to see a mind of real capacity fall into error,\nwhere an intelligence of mediocre caliber asserts its efficiency.\nIndifference is the most serious obstacle to the attainment of judgment.\n\n\"Common sense demands a keen alertness of understanding, placed at the\ndisposal of a reflection which appears at times slow of action, but which\nis long in being manifested only because of the desire to surround itself\nby all the guaranties of truth concerning the object in question.\n\n\"The fifth blade of the fan is the quality of deduction--the most solid\nbasis for the judgments which are formed by common sense.\n\n\"By deduction we are able to solve all relative questions with\nperfect accuracy.\n\n\"It is by abstracting reckless contingencies, and by relying only upon\nthe relativeness of facts, that we can succeed in discovering the truth\nthat there are too many representations as to these facts.\n\n\"Deduction is the great support of mental weakness. It helps in\ndiscerning proportions, possibilities, even as it helps in skilfully\navoiding the fear of error.\"\n\nWe shall have occasion to speak more at length of deduction, for Yoritomo\ndevotes many pages to it. We shall, then, defer to a future chapter the\ninteresting developments that he discloses on this subject, and we shall\ncontinue to study the fan of common sense with him.\n\n\"Foresight,\" he continues, \"is rightly looked upon as one of the\nindispensable elements in cultivating common sense.\n\n\"The faculty of foresight always accompanies common sense, in order to\nstrengthen its qualities of skill and observation.\n\n\"One must not confound, as many people are tempted to do, foresight and\nconjecture.\n\n\"The first consists in taking great care to prevent the repetition of\nunhappy facts which have already existed.\n\n\"Foresight will exert an influence on future events by establishing an\nanalogy between them and the actual incidents which, of necessity, will\nlead to the adoption or rejection of present projects.\n\n\"It is to be observed that all these faculties are subordinate, one to\nthe other, and, in proportion to the unfolding of the fan, we can prove\nthat all the blades previously mentioned have concurred in the formation\nof the blade of which we are now speaking.\n\n\"In order to foresee disasters it is necessary that the\nperception--visual or auditory--of said disasters should already have\nimprest us.\n\n\"We have kept intact the memory of them, since it is reconstructed\nemotion which guides our thoughts.\n\n\"These same thoughts, in extending themselves, form groups of thoughts\nharmonious in character, all relative to the one, which is the object of\nthe debate.\n\n\"Our mind becomes more active in recalling the incidents, the remembrance\nof which marks the time which has elapsed between the old perception and\nthe present state of mental absorption.\n\n\"The faculty of deduction, which is born of these different mental\nconflicts, permits me to foresee that circumstances of the same nature\nwill lead to others similar to those we have already mentioned.\n\n\"We have merely sketched rapidly the scale of sensations which follow\neach other, in order to reach the explanation of how foresight is formed,\nthis faculty of which we are now speaking.\n\n\"By assimilating these present facts with those of the past, we are\npermitted to draw a conclusion, relating to the same group of results,\nbecause of the conformity of those past facts to the present questions.\n\n\"Foresight is passive; between it and precaution there is the same\ndifference as between theory and practise.\n\n\"Precaution is preeminently active, and it marks its first appearance by\nmeans of foresight, but does not stop in this effort until it has\nrendered foresight productive.\n\n\"It is well to foresee, but it is precious to preclude.\n\n\"The second part of the act of precaution can, however, only be\naccomplished after having permitted the brain to register the thoughts\nwhich determine the first part of this act.\"\n\nIn order to understand this very subtle difference, but very important\none, which classifies these two sentiments, the old sage gives us the\nfollowing example:\n\n\"Let us suppose,\" he says, \"that, on a beautiful day in spring, a man\nstarts out for an excursion which will last until the dawn of the\nfollowing day.\n\n\"If he has common sense, he will say to himself that the sun will not be\nshining at the time of his return, that the nights of spring are cold,\nand that this one will be no exception to the rule.\n\n\"This is foresight.\n\n\"If common sense, with all its consequences, takes possession of him, it\nwill increase his power of reasoning. He will think that, in order to\navoid suffering from the change of temperature, it would be well to cover\nhimself with a cloak.\n\n\"And, even tho the sun shone, he would not hesitate to furnish himself\nwith this accessory, which in fact will render him the greatest service.\n\n\"This is precaution.\n\n\"This quality is indispensable to the formation of the reasoning power;\nfor, in addition to the necessity of foreseeing certain results, it\npermits also of directing their course, if it be impossible to exempt\nthem completely.\n\n\"Reasoning is the art of developing, to the highest degree, the\nsuppositions resulting from deduction.\n\n\"One is usually mistaken as to the exact meaning of the words 'to\nreason,' and people seldom attach the importance to them which\nthey should.\n\n\"One is apt to think that the gift of reasoning is bestowed upon\nevery one.\n\n\"Perhaps; but to reason, following the principles of justice and truth,\nis an operation which can only be performed by minds endowed with\ncommon sense.\n\n\"In order to arrive at this result, it is essential to impress upon\noneself the value of the words, 'to deduct accurately,' after having\nproduced the radiation of thoughts which depend upon the object in\nquestion, and to foresee the consequences of the facts that a resolution\ncould determine.\n\n\"Above all, to avoid contentment with the approximate, which conceals\nmany pitfalls under false appearances.\n\n\"Without permitting oneself to express useless trivialities, not to\nneglect to become impregnated with those axioms which have been\nrightfully baptized, 'wisdom of nations.'\n\n\"They are generally based on a secular observation, and are the product\nof many generations.\n\n\"It would be puerile to attach vital importance to them, but one would\nsurely regret having entirely scorned their counsel.\n\n\"Too much erudition is at times detrimental to reason, based on common\nsense. Altho fully appreciating science, and devoting serious study to\nit, one would do well to introduce the human element into his knowledge.\n\n\"There are some essential truths which modify daily life without, for\nthis reason, lessening their importance.\n\n\"Some of them are of premature development; others are of\nminiature growth.\n\n\"To reason without offending common sense, it is, therefore,\nindispensable to consider time, place, environment, and all the\ncontingencies which could arise to undermine the importance of\nreasoning.\"\n\nAfter having reviewed all these phases, we shall then extend, in accord\nwith Yoritomo, the last blade of this rudimentary fan, and we shall\nfind judgment.\n\n\"This one is the index to that quality of mind called conviction.\n\n\"This mental operation consists in drawing together many ideas that their\nrelative characteristics may be determined.\n\n\"This operation takes the place contiguous to reasoning, of which it is\nthe result.\n\n\"Judgment determines its character after having registered the reasons\nwhich ought to indicate its position; it deducts the conclusions imposed\nby the explanatory principle, and classifies the idea by submitting it to\nthe valuation placed upon it by judgment.\n\n\"All judgment is either affirmative or negative.\n\n\"It can never be vascillating nor neutral.\n\n\"In this last case it will assume the title of opinion, and will\nattribute to itself the definite qualities which characterize judgment.\n\n\"It is, however, at times subjected to certain conditions, where the\nprinciples on which it is based are not sufficiently defined, and,\ntherefore, becomes susceptible to a change, either of form or of nature.\n\n\"It is possible, without violating the laws of common sense, to establish\na judgment whose terms will be modified by the mutation of causes.\n\n\"But common sense demands that these different influences should be\nforeseen, and that these eventualities should be mentioned when\npronouncing the judgment.\"\n\nWe have reached the last blade of the symbolic fan, described by the\nphilosopher, for many secondary qualities may be placed between the\nprinciple blades.\n\nBut faithful to his explanatory method, he wished to indicate to us the\nbroad lines first, and also to state the indispensable faculties\nconstituting common sense, by teaching us their progression and\ndevelopment.\n\nHe desired to demonstrate to us also how much all these qualities would\nbe lessened in value if they were not united and bound together in the\norder in which they ought to manifest themselves.\n\n\"We have all possest,\" said he, \"some fans whose point of reunion was\ndestroyed in part or altogether lost.\n\n\"What becomes of it, then?\n\n\"During a certain length of time, always rather short, the blades, after\nhaving remained bound together by the thread which holds them, separate,\nwhen it is severed because of the lack of harmony and of equilibrium at\ntheir base.\n\n\"Very soon, one blade among them detaches itself, and the mutilated fan\ntakes its place in the cemetery where sleep those things deteriorated\nbecause of old age or disuse.\n\n\"It is the same with the qualities which we have just enumerated. As long\nas they remain attached to their central point, which is common sense,\nthey stand erect, beautiful and strong, concurring in the fertilization\nof our minds, and in creating peace in our lives.\n\n\"But if the point of contact ceases to maintain them, to bind them\ntogether, to forbid their separating, we shall soon see them fall apart\nafter having escaped from the temporary protection of the secondary\nqualities.\n\n\"For a while we seek to evoke them; but recognizing the ruse existing in\ntheir commands, we shall soon be the first to abandon them, in order to\nharmonize our favors with the deceptive mirage of the illusions; at\nleast, if we do not allow ourselves to be tempted by fallacious arguments\nof vanity.\n\n\"In the one as in the other case, we shall become, then, the prey of\nerror and ignorance, for common sense is the intelligence of truth.\"\n\n\n\n\nLESSON IV\n\nCOMMON SENSE AND IMPULSE\n\n\nImpulsive people are those who allow themselves to be guided by their\ninitial impressions and make resolutions or commit acts tinder the\ndomination of a special consciousness into which perception has\nplunged them.\n\nImpulse is a form of cerebral activity which, forces us to make a\nmovement before the mind is able to decide upon it by means of reflection\nor reasoning. The Shogun deals with it at length and defines it thus:\n\n\"Impulse is an almost direct contact between perception and result.\n\n\"Memory, thought, deduction, and, above all, reason are absolutely\nexcluded from these acts, which are never inspired by intellectuality.\n\n\"The impression received by the brain is immediately transmuted into an\nact, similar to those acts which depend entirely on automatic memory.\n\n\"It is certain in making a series of movements, which compose the act of\nwalking upstairs or the action of walking from one place to another, we\ndo not think of analyzing our efforts and this act of walking almost\nlimits itself to an organic function, so little does thought enter into\nits composition.\n\n\"In the case of repeated impulses, it can be absolutely affirmed that\nsubstance is the antecedent and postulate of the essence of being.\n\n\"Substance comprises all corporal materialities: instinctive needs,\nirrational movements, in a word, all actions where common sense is\nnot a factor.\n\n\"Essence is that imponderable part of being which includes the soul, the\nmind, the intelligence, in fact the entire mentality.\n\n\"It is this last element of our being which poetizes our thoughts,\nclassifies them, and leads us to common sense, by means of reasoning\nand judgment.\n\n\"He who, having received an injury from his superior, replies to it at\nonce by corresponding affront, is absolutely sure to become the victim of\nhis impulses.\n\n\"It is only when his act is consummated, that he will think of the\nconsequences which it can entail; the loss of his employment first, then\ncorporal punishment, in severity according to the gravity of the offense;\nlastly, misery, perhaps the result of forced inactivity.\n\n\"On the contrary, the man endowed with common sense will reflect in a\nflash, by recalling all the different phases which we have described. His\nintelligence, being appealed to, will represent to him the consequences\nof a violent action.\n\n\"He will find, in common sense, the strength not to respond to an injury\nat once; but will not forego the right, however, of avenging himself\nunder the guise of a satisfaction which will be all the more easily\naccorded to him as his moderation will not fail to make an impression in\nhis favor.\"\n\n\"There is, between common sense and impulse,\" says Yoritomo, \"the\ndifference that one would find between two coats, one of which was bought\nready-made, while the other, after being cut according to the proportions\nof the one who is to wear it, was sewed by a workman to whom all the\nresources of his art are known.\"\n\nIf impulses adopt the same character for every one, common sense adapts\nitself to the mind, to the sensitiveness, to the worth of him who\npractises it; it is a garment which is adjusted to the proportions of its\nowner, and, according to his taste, is elaborate or simple.\n\nCertain people have a tendency to confound intuition and impulse.\n\nThese two things, really very different in essence, are only related by\nspontaneity of thought which gives them birth.\n\nBut whereas intuition, a sensation altogether moral, concisely stated, is\ncomposed of mental speculations, impulses always resolve themselves into\nacts and resolutions to act.\n\nIntuition is a sort of obscure revelation, which reason controls only\nafter its formation.\n\nImpulse never engages common sense in the achievements which it\nrealizes. It never decides upon them in advance, and almost always\nengenders regrets.\n\nIt is the result of a defeat in self-control, which will-power and the\npower of reasoning alone can correct.\n\nIntuition is less spontaneous than impulse.\n\nIt is a very brief mental operation, but, nevertheless, very real, which,\nvery indistinctly, touches lightly all the phases of reasoning, in order\nto reach a conclusion so rapidly that he who conceives it has difficulty\nin making the transformations of the initial thought intelligible.\n\nIt is none the less true that intuition is always inspired by a predicted\nreflection, but, in spite of this fact, an existing reflection.\n\nImpulse, on the contrary, only admits instinct as its source of\nexistence.\n\nIt is the avowed enemy of common sense, which counsels the escape from\nexterior insinuations that one may concentrate, in order to listen to the\nvoice which dictates to us the abstinence from doing anything until after\nmaking a complete analysis of the cause which agitates us.\n\nSome philosophers have sought to rank inspiration under the flag of\nimpulse, which they thought to defend; yes, even to recover esteem under\nthis new form.\n\n\"We should know how to stand on guard,\" says Yoritomo, \"against this\nfatal error.\"\n\n\"Inspiration,\" says he, \"is rarely immobilized under the traits which\ncharacterized its first appearance.\n\n\"Before expressing itself in a work of art or of utility, it was the\nembryo of that which it must afterward personify.\n\n\"The ancients when relating that a certain divinity sprang, fully armed,\nfrom the head of a god, accredited this belief to instantaneous creation.\n\n\"If musicians, painters, poets, and inventors want to be sincere, they\nwill agree that, between the thought which they qualify as inspiration,\nand its tangible realization, a ladder of transformations has been\nconstructed, and that it is only by progressive steps that they have\nattained what seemed to them the nearest to perfection.\"\n\nImpulse, then, is only distantly related to inspiration and intuition.\n\nLet us add that these gifts are very often only the fruit of an\nunconscious mental effort, and that, most of the time, the thoughts,\nwhich in good faith one accepts as inspiration or intuition, are only\nnameless reminiscences, whose apparition coincides with an emotional\nstate of being, which existed at the time of the first perception.\n\nThere, again, the presence of reasoning is visible, and also the presence\nof common sense, which tries to convert into a work of lasting results\nthose impressions which would probably remain unproductive without the\naid of these two faculties.\n\nImpulses are, most of the time, the vassals of material sensations.\n\nDefinite reasoning and impartial judgment, inspired by common sense, are\nrarely the possession of a sick man.\n\nSufferings, in exposing him to melancholy, make him see things in a\ndefective light; the effort of thinking fatigues his weak brain, and the\nfear of a resolution which would force him to get out of his inactivity\nhas enormous influence upon the deductions which dictate his judgment.\n\nBefore discussing the advantages of conflict, he will instinctively\nresign himself to inertia.\n\nIf, on the contrary, his temperament disposes him to anger, he will\ncompromise an undertaking by a spontaneous violence, which patience and\nreflection would otherwise have made successful. It is possible also that\na valiant soul is unable to obey a weak body, and that instinct, awakened\nby fear, leads one on to the impulsive desires of activity.\n\nInadequate food or excessive nourishment can produce impulses of a\ndifferent nature, but these differences are wholly and completely\ndistinct as to character.\n\nThe most evident danger of impulses lies in the scattering of mental\nforces, which, being too frequently called upon, use themselves up\nwithout benefiting either reason or common sense.\n\nThe habit of indulging in movements dictated only by instinct, in\nsuppressing all the phases of judgment leaves infinitely more latitude to\ncaprice, which exists at the expense of solid judgment.\n\nPerception, being related to that which interests our passions, by\ngetting in direct contact with the action which should simply be derived\nfrom a deduction, inspired by common sense, multiplies the unreflected\nmanifestations and produces waste of the forces, which should be\nconcentrated on a central point, after having passed through all the\nphases of which we have spoken.\n\nIn addition, the permanency of resolutions is unknown to impulsive\npeople.\n\nTheir tendency, by leading them on toward instantaneous solutions, allows\nthem to ignore the benefits of consistency.\n\n\"They are like unto a peasant,\" said the old Nippon, \"who owned a field\nin the country of Tokio. Scarcely had he begun to sow a part of the field\nwhen, under the influence of an unhappy impulse, he plowed up the earth\nagain in order to sow the ground with a new seed.\n\n\"If he heard any one speak of any special new method of cultivation,\nhe only tried it for a short while, and then abandoned it, to try\nanother way.\n\n\"He tried to cultivate rice; then, before the time for harvesting it, he\nbecame enthusiastic for the cultivation of chrysanthemums, which he\nabandoned very soon in order to plant trees, whose slow development\nincited him to change his nursery into a field of wheat.\n\n\"He died in misery, a victim of his having scorned the power of\nconsistency and common sense.\"\n\nNow Yoritomo, after having put us on our guard against impulses, shows us\nthe way to conquer these causes of disorder.\n\n\"To control unguarded movements, which place us on a level with inferior\nbeings. That is,\" said he \"in making us dependent on one instinct alone.\nThis is,\" said he, \"to take the first step toward the will to think,\nwhich is one of the forms of common sense.\n\n\"In order to reach this point, the first resolution to make is to escape\nfrom the tyranny of the body, which tends to replace the intellectual\nelement in impulsive people.\n\n\"When I was still under the instruction of my preceptor, Lang-Ho, I saw\nhim cure a man who was affected with what he called 'The Malady of the\nFirst Impulse.'\n\n\"Whether it concerned good actions or reprehensible ones, this man always\nacted without the least reflection.\n\n\"To launch a new enterprise, which the most elementary common sense\ncondemned, he gave the greater part of his fortune in a moment of\nenthusiasm.\n\n\"He allowed himself to commit acts of violence which taught him\nsevere lessons.\n\n\"Finally, vexed beyond measure, dissatisfied with himself and others, he\nso brutally maltreated a high dignitary in a moment of violent anger that\nthe latter sent for him that he might punish him. Learning of this, the\nman, crazy with rage, rushed out of his house in order to kill the prince\nwith his own hand.\n\n\"It was in this paroxysm of passion that my master met him. Like all\nimpulsive people, he was full of his subject, and, joining the perception\nof the insult to the judgment of it, which his instinct had immediately\ndictated to him, he did not conceal his murderous intentions.\n\n\"My master, by means of a strategy, succeeded in dissuading him from\naccomplishing his revenge that day. He persuaded him that the prince was\nabsent and would only return to town upon the following day.\n\n\"The man believed him, and allowed himself to be taken to the house\nof Lang-Ho.\n\n\"But it was in vain that Lang-Ho unfolded all his most subtle arguments.\nNeither the fear of punishment, nor the hope of pardon, could conquer the\nobstinacy which can always be observed in impulsive people when their\nresolution has not accomplished its purpose.\n\n\"It was then that my master employed a ruse, whose fantastic character\nbrings a smile, but which, however, demonstrates a profound knowledge of\nthe human heart when acting under the influence of common sense.\n\n\"During the sleep of his guest, Lang-Ho took off his robe, replacing it\nby a garment made of two materials. One was golden yellow, the other a\nbrilliant green. After attacks of terrible anger, in spite of the\nsolicitation of his impulsive nature which incited him to go out, he did\nnot dare to venture into the streets in such a costume.\n\n\"That which the most subtle arguments had been unable to accomplish, was\nobtained through fear of ridicule.\n\n\"Two days passed; his fury was changed into great mental exhaustion,\nbecause impulsive people can not withstand the contact with obstacles for\nany length of time.\n\n\"It was this moment which my master chose to undertake the cure, in which\nhe was so vitally interested.\n\n\"With the most delicate art, he explained to the impulsive man all the\nchain of sentiments leading from perception to judgment.\n\n\"He caused common sense to intervene so happily that the man was\npermeated by it. My master kept him near by for several weeks, always\nusing very simple arguments to combat the instinctive resolutions which\nwere formulated in his brain many times a day.\n\n\"Common sense, thus solicited, was revealed to the impulsive one, and\nappeared like a peaceful counselor.\n\n\"The ridiculous and odious side of his resolution was represented to him\nwith such truth that he embraced Lang-Ho, saying:\n\n\"'Now, Master, I can go away, and your mind can be at rest about me.\n\n\"'The arguments of common sense have liberated me from bondage in which\nmy lack of reflection held me.\n\n\"'I return to my home, but, I beg of you, allow me to take away this\nridiculous costume which was my savior.\n\n\"'I wish to hang it in my home, in the most conspicuous place, that, from\nthe moment my nature incites me to obey the commands of impulse, I may be\nable to look at once upon this garment, and thus recall your teachings,\nwhich have brought sweetness and peace into my life.'\"\n\nAll those who are inclined to act by instinct should follow this example,\nnot by dressing up in a ridiculous robe half green and half yellow, but\nby placing obstacles in the way of the accomplishment of impulsive acts,\nwhich the dictates of common sense would not sanction.\n\n\"For those whose mind possess a certain delicacy,\" again says the old\nmaster, \"these obstacles will be of a purely moral order, but for those\nwho voluntarily allow themselves to be dominated by a diseased desire for\naction, obstacles should adopt a tangible form; the difficulty in\nconquering anything always makes impulsive people reflect a little.\n\n\"Under the immediate impression of the perception of an act they are\nready for a struggle to the death; but this ardor is quickly\nextinguished, and inertia, in its turn, having become an impulse, makes\nthem throw far away from them the object which determined the effort.\n\n\"In proportion as they encounter obstacles, which they have taken the\nprecaution to raise, the encroachment of the impression will make itself\nless felt.\n\n\"The mere fact of having foreseen will become a matter for\nreflection for them.\n\n\"The feeling of the responsibilities will be roused in them, and they\nwill understand how difficult it is to escape the consequences of\nimpulsive acts.\"\n\nWould one not say that these lines had been written yesterday?\n\nMore than ever our age of unrest makes us the prey of impulses, and to\nthe majority of our contemporaries, the robe, half green and half yellow\n(by recalling to them the worship of common sense), will become a fetish,\nmore precious than all the amulets with which superstition loves to adorn\nlogic, or to incorporate fantastic outline in the classic setting of\nbeautiful jewels.\n\n\n\n\nLESSON V\n\nTHE DANGERS OF SENTIMENTALITY\n\n\nThe Shogun says: \"There are sentimentalities of many kinds, some present\nless dangers than others, but from every point of view they are\nprejudicial to the acquisition and exercise of common sense. To cultivate\nsentiment over which the Will has no control is always to be regretted.\n\n\"Sentimentality is multiform.\n\n\"It presents itself, at times, under the aspect of an obscure appeal to\nsensuality and brings with it a passing desire of the heart and of the\nsenses, which produces an artificial appreciation of the emotion felt.\n\n\"In this first case sentimentality is an unconscious manifestation of\negotism, because, outside of that which provokes this outward\nmanifestation, everything is alienated and becomes indistinct.\n\n\"The incidents of existence lose their true proportion, since everything\nbecomes relative to the object because of our preoccupation.\n\n\"The impulse reigns supreme there when sentimentality establishes itself,\nand the desire of judgment, if it makes itself apparent, is quickly\nshunned, to the profit of illusory reasons, in which pure reason does not\nintervene.\n\n\"This sentimentality amalgamating the springs of egotism bereaves the\nsoul's longing of all its greatness.\n\n\"The anxiety to attribute all our impressions to emotion is only a way of\nintensifying it for our personal satisfaction, at the expense of a\nsentiment far deeper and more serious, which never blossoms under the\nshadow of egotism and of frivolous sentimentality.\n\n\"Never will common sense have the chance to manifest itself in those who\npermit such ephemeral and enfeebling impressions to implant themselves in\ntheir souls.\n\n\"However they must be pitied because their artificial emotion often\nresults in a sorrow which is not lessened by repetition, but whose\nmanifestation is none the less prejudicial to the peace of their being.\n\n\"All those who do not harmonize common sense and the emotions of the\nheart become passive to the investiture of a sentimentality which does\nnot wait to know if the object be worthy of them before it exists in\nconsciousness.\n\n\"From this state of mind arise disillusions and their recurrence entails\na defect in the conception.\n\n\"Men who are often deceived in allowing themselves to feel a sorrow which\nis only based on the longings of sentimentality become pessimists quickly\nand deny the existence of deep and enduring affection judged from its\nsuperior expression.\n\n\"This superior expression of sentiment is freed from all personality and\nsuch judgment which differentiates it from other sentiments.\n\n\"If we wished to appeal to common sense we should acknowledge, too often,\nthat in the search for expansion we have only recognized the opportunity\nto satisfy the inclination which urges us to seek for pleasure.\n\n\"Sentiment reasons, and is capable of devotion. Sentimentality excludes\nreflective thought and ignores generosity.\n\n\"We are capable of sacrificing ourselves for sentiment.\n\n\"Sentimentality exacts the sacrifice of others.\n\n\"Therefore, profiting by the principles already developed, he who\ncultivates common sense will never fail to reason in the following\nmanner:\n\n\"Opening the symbolic fan, he will encounter, after perfection, the\nmemory which will suggest to him the recollections of personal and\nstrange experiences and he will record this fact: abegation is rarely\nencountered.\n\n\"The inclination of our thoughts will suggest to us the difficulties\nthere are in searching for it.\n\n\"Deduction will acquaint us with the temerity of this exaction, and\nprecaution will attract our thoughts to the possibility of suffering\nwhich could proceed from disillusion.\n\n\"Following this, reasoning and judgment will intervene in order to hasten\nthe conclusion formulated by common sense.\n\n\"It follows then that, abnegation being so rare, common sense indicates\nto me that it would be imprudent for me to allow my happiness to rest\nupon the existence of a thing so exceptional.\n\n\"For this reason this sentimental defect will find common sense armed\nagainst this eventuality.\n\n\"There is another form or sentimentality not less common.\n\n\"It is that which extends itself to all the circumstances of life and\ntransforms true pity into a false sensibility, the exaggeration of which\ndeteriorates the true value of things.\n\n\"Those who give publicity to this form of sentiment are agitated (or\nimagine themselves to be agitated) as profoundly on the most futile of\npretexts as for the most important cause.\n\n\"They do not think to ask themselves if their ardor is merited; also\nevery such experience, taking out of them something of their inner\nselves, leaves them enfeebled and stranded.\n\n\"Every excursion into the domain of sentimentality is particularly\ndangerous, for tourists always fail to carry with them the necessary\ncoinage which one calls common sense.\"\n\nAfter having put ourselves on guard against the surprizes of mental\nexaggeration, Yoritomo warns us of a kind of high respectable\nsentimentality which we possess, that is none the less censurable\nbecause under an exterior of the purest tenderness it conceals a\nprofound egotism.\n\nIt concerns paternal love from which reasoning and common sense\nare excluded.\n\n\"Nothing\" said he, \"seems more noble than the love of parents for their\nchildren, and no sentiment is more august when it is comprehended in all\nits grandeur.\n\n\"But how many people are apt to distinguish it from an egotistical\nsentimentality.\n\n\"I have seen some mothers oppose the departure of their sons, preferring\nto oblige them to lead an obscure existence near to them, rather than\nimpose upon themselves the sorrow of a separation.\n\n\"These women do not fail to condemn the action of others, who, filled\nwith a sublime abnegation, allow their children to depart, hiding from\nthem the tears which they shed, because they have the conviction of\nseeing them depart for the fortune and the happiness which they feel\nthemselves unable to offer them.\n\n\"Which of these are worthy of admiration? Those who condemn their\nchildren to a life of mediocrity in order to obey an egotistical\nsentimentality, or those who, with despair in their hearts, renounce the\njoy of their presence, and think only of their own grief in order to\nbuild upon it the happiness of their dear ones.\n\n\"The common sense of this latter class inspiring in them this magnificent\nsentiment, and forcing them to set aside a sentimentality which is, in\nreality, only the caricature of sentiment, has permitted them to escape\nthat special kind of egotism, which could be defined thus: The\ntranslation of a desire for personal contentment.\n\n\"Ought we then to blame others so strongly?\n\n\"It is necessary, above all, to teach them to reason about the ardor of\ntheir emotions, and only to follow them when they find that they are\ncleansed from all aspiration which is not a pledge of devotion.\"\n\nNow the Shogun speaks to us with that subtlety of analysis which is\ncharacteristic and refers to a kind of sentimentality the most frequent\nand the least excusable.\n\n\"There are,\" he tells us, \"a number of people who, without knowing that\nthey offend common sense in a most indefensible manner, invoke\nsentimentality in order to dispense with exercising the most vulgar pity,\nto the profit of their neighbor.\n\n\"A prince,\" he continues, \"possest a large? tract of land which he had\nput under grain.\n\n\"For the harvest, a large number of peasants and laborers were employed\nand each one lived on the products of his labor.\n\n\"But a prolonged drought threatened the crop; so the prince's overseer\ndismissed most of the laborers, who failed to find employment in the\nparched country.\n\n\"Soon hunger threatened the inmates of the miserable dwellings, and\nsickness, its inseparable companion, did not fail to follow.\n\n\"Facing the conditions the prince left, and had it not been for two\nor three wealthy and charitable people the laborers would have\nstarved to death.\n\n\"This pitiful condition was soon changed, abundance replaced famine, and\nthe master returned to live in his domain.\n\n\"But amazement followed when he addrest his people as follows: Here I am,\nback among you, and I hope to remain here a long time; if I left you, it\nwas because I have so great an affection for all my servants and because\neven the bare thought of seeing them suffer caused me unbearable sorrow.\n\n\"I am not among those who are sufficiently hard-hearted to be able to\ntake care of sick and suffering people and to be a witness of their\nmartyrdom. My pity is too keen to permit of my beholding this spectacle;\nthis is why I had to leave to others, less sensitive, the burden of care\nwhich my too tender heart was unable to lavish on you.\"\n\nAnd that which is more terrible is that this man believed what he said.\n\nHe did not understand the monstrous rent which he made in the robe of\ncommon sense, by declaring that he had committed the vilest act of\ncruelty due to excessive sensitiveness since it represented a murderous\nact of omission.\n\nExamples of this form of sentimentality are more numerous than we think.\n\nThere exist people who cover their dogs with caresses, gorging them with\ndainties, and will take good care not to succor the needy.\n\nOthers faint away at sight of an accident and never think of giving aid\nto the wounded.\n\nOne may observe that for people exercising sentimentality at the expense\nof common sense, the greatest catastrophe in intensity, if it be far away\nfrom us, diminishes, while the merest incident, a little out of the\nordinary, affects them in a most immoderate manner if it be produced in\nthe circle of their acquaintances.\n\nIt is needless to add that, if it touches them directly, it becomes an\nunparalleled calamity; it seems that the rest of the world must be\ntroubled by it.\n\nThis propensity toward pitying oneself unreasonably about little things\nwhich relate to one directly and this exaggerated development of a\nsterile sentimentality are almost always artificial, and the instinct of\nself-preservation very often aids in their extermination.\n\n\"Among my old disciples,\" pursues the Shogun, \"I had a friend whose son\nwas afflicted by this kind of sentimentality, the sight of blood made him\nfaint and he was incapable of aiding any one whomsoever; that which he\ncalled his good heart, and which was only a form of egotistical\nsentimentality, prevented him from looking at the suffering of others.\n\n\"One day, a terrible earthquake destroyed his palace; he escaped, making\nhis way through the ruins and roughly pushing aside the wounded who told\nabout it afterward.\n\n\"I saw him some days after; instead of reproaching him severely for his\nconduct, I endeavored to make him see how false was his conception of\npity, since, not only had he not fainted at the sight of those who,\nhalf-dead, were groaning, but he had found in the egotistical sentiment\nof self-preservation the strength to struggle against those who clung to\nhim, beseeching him for help.\n\n\"I demonstrated to him the evident contradiction of his instinctive\ncruelty to the sentimentality that it pleased him to make public.\n\n\"I made an appeal to common sense, in order to prove to him the attitude\nwhich he had, until then, assumed, and I had the joy of seeing myself\nunderstood.\n\n\"My arguments appealed to his mentality, and always afterward, when he\nhad the opportunity to bring puerile sentimentality and common sense face\nto face, he forced himself to appeal to that quality, which in revealing\nto him the artifice of the sentiment which animated him, cured him of\nfalse sensibility, which he had displayed up to that time.\"\n\nSentimentality is in reality only a conception of egotism, under the\ndifferent forms which it adopts.\n\nYoritomo proves it to us again, in speaking of the weakness of certain\nteachers, who, under the pretext of avoiding trouble, allow their\nchildren to follow their defective inclinations.\n\n\"It is by an instinctive hatred of effort that parents forbid themselves\nto make their children cry when reprimanding them,\" said he.\n\n\"If the parents wish to be sincere to themselves, they will perceive that\nthe sorrow in seeing their children's tears flow, plays a very small part\nin their preconceived idea of indulgence.\n\n\"It is in order to economize their own nervous energy or to avoid\ncleverly the trouble of continued teaching, that they hesitate to provoke\nthese imaginary miseries, the manifestation of which is caused by the\ngreat weakness of the teachers.\n\n\"Common sense, nevertheless, ought to make them understand that it is\npreferable to allow the little ones to shed a few tears, which are\nquickly dried, rather than to tolerate a deplorable propensity for these\nhabits which, later in life, will cause them real anxiety.\"\n\nAnd the philosopher concludes:\n\n\"A very little reasoning could suffice to convince one of the dangers of\nsentimentality, if the persons who devote themselves entirely to it\nconsented to reflect, by frankly agreeing to the true cause which\nproduces it.\n\n\"They would discover in this false pity the desire not to disturb their\nown tranquility.\n\n\"They would also perceive that, in order to spare themselves a few\nunpleasant moments in the present they are preparing for themselves great\nsorrow for the future.\n\n\"In parental affection, as in friendship or in the emotions of\nlove, sentimentality is none other than an exaggerated amplification\nof the ego.\n\n\"If it be true that all our acts, even those most worthy of approbation,\ncan react in our personality, at least it is necessary that we should be\nlogical and that, in order to create for ourselves a partial happiness or\nto avoid a temporary annoyance, we should not prepare for ourselves an\nexistence, outlined by deception and fruitless regrets.\n\n\"Sentimentality and its derivatives, puerile pity and false\nsensitiveness, can create illusion for those who do not practise the art\nof reasoning, but the friends of common sense do not hesitate to condemn\nthem for it.\n\n\"In spite of the glitter in which it parades itself, sentimentality will\nnever be anything but the dross of true sentiment.\"\n\n\n\n\nLESSON VI\n\nTHE UTILITY OF COMMON SENSE IN DAILY LIFE\n\n\nAs our philosopher explains, the influence of common sense is above all\nappreciation of daily events. \"We have,\" he continues, \"very rarely in\nlife the opportunity of making grave decisions, but we are called upon\ndaily to resolve unimportant problems, and we can only do it in a\njudicious way, if we are allowed to devote ourselves to certain kinds of\ninvestigation.\n\n\"This is what may be called to judge with discrimination, otherwise, with\ncommon sense.\n\n\"Without this faculty, it is in vain that our memory amasses the\nmaterials, which must serve us in the comparative examination of facts.\n\n\"And this examination can only be spoiled by decrepitude, if common sense\ndid not succeed in dictating its conclusions to us.\n\n\"Thanks to this faculty, we possess this accuracy of mind which permits\nus to discern truth from falsehood.\n\n\"It is this power which aids us in distinguishing what we should consider\nas a duty, as a right, or as a thing conforming to equity, established by\nthe laws of intelligence.\n\n\"Without common sense we should be like an inexperienced gardener, who,\nfor want of knowledge, would allow the tares to grow and would neglect\nthe plants whose function is to nourish man.\n\n\"In order to conform to the habit of judging with common sense, one ought\nfirst to lay down the following principle:\n\n\"No fact can exist, unless there is a sufficient motive to determine\nits nature.\n\n\"It is when operating on the elements furnished us by common sense that\nwe are able to discern the quality of the object of our attention.\n\n\"One day, a sage, whom people gladly consulted, was asked by what means\nhe had learned to know so well the exact proportion of things, so that he\nnever failed to attribute to them their real value.\n\n\"'Why' they added, 'can you foresee so exactly the evil and direct us to\nthat which is right and just?'\n\n\"And the superstitious people added:\n\n\"'Are you not in communication with the spirits, which float in space,\nwhich come from the other world?\n\n\"Would you not be counseled by voices which we have not the power to\nhear, and do you not see things which are visible to you alone?'\n\n\"'You are right,' replied the saintly man, smiling:\n\n\"'I have indeed the power to hear and to see that which you do not\nperceive; but sorcery has no relation to the power which is\nattributed to me.\n\n\"If you wish, you will be able to possess it in your turn, for my means\nare not a secret.\n\n\"'I keep my eyes and ears open.'\n\n\"And as every one burst out laughing, believing it a joke, the sage\nbegan again:\n\n\"'But this is not all; after having seen and heard, I call to my aid all\nthe qualities which constitute common sense and, thanks to this faculty,\nI draw my conclusions from my experience, from which enthusiasm, fancy,\nas well as personal interest are totally excluded.\n\n\"'This done, and my judgment being formulated in my thought, I adapt it\nto the circumstances, and especially to the material situation and to the\nmentality of those who consult me.'\n\n\"From these counsels,\" thinks the Shogun, \"we must draw a precious\nlesson.\n\n\"It is true that an exigency, physical or moral, can determine, in\ndifferent individuals, a very different resolution.\n\n\"According to the manner of life adopted, or the direction given to one's\nduties, different resolutions can be made without lacking common sense.\nIt is indisputable that what represents social obligations does not\ndemand the same conduct from the peasant as from the prince.\n\n\"We should outrage common sense in presenting a workman with a gorgeous\nrobe suitable for great ceremonies, in which to do his work, but reason\nwould be equally outraged if one put on a shabby costume to go to the\npalace of the Mikado.\"\n\nThe nature of resolutions inspired by common sense varies according to\nenvironment, the time, and the state of mind in which one is.\n\nThese conditions make of this quality a virtue really worth acquiring,\nfor it is more difficult to conquer than many others and its effects are\nof infinite variety.\n\nBut as always, Yoritomo, after having signaled the danger, and indicated\nthe remedy, gives us the manner of its application.\n\nThat which follows is marked by that simplicity of conception and\nfacility of execution which render the doctrine of the Nippon philosopher\nabsolutely efficacious.\n\nInstead of losing himself by digressing from his subject and by placing\nhimself on the summits of psychology, he remains with us, puts himself on\nthe level of the most humble among us, and says to us all:\n\n\"The best way to use common sense in daily life consists in declaring\none's honest intentions.\n\n\"What should I do if I were in the place of the person with whom I am\ndiscussing?\n\n\"I found myself one day on the slope of a hill named Yung-Tshi, and I\nremarked that the majority of the trees were stript of their foliage.\n\n\"The season seeming to me not sufficiently advanced for this condition of\nvegetation, I exprest my astonishment to a passer-by, who replied to me:\n\n\"'Alas! This occurs every year at the same time, and it is not well to\ncultivate trees on the height of Yung-Tshi, for the sun, being too hot,\ndries them up before the time when the foliage ought to fall.'\n\n\"A few days afterward my steps lead me on the opposite slope of the\nsame hill.\n\n\"There the trees were covered with foliage, still green but uncommon, and\ntheir appearance indicated an unhealthy condition of growth.\n\n\"'Alas!' said a man who was working in the hedges to me, 'it is not well\nto cultivate trees on the height of Tung-Tshi, for the sun never shines\nthere, and they can only acquire the vigor they would possess if they\nwere planted in another country.'\n\n\"And, altho recognizing the truth of these two opinions, so\ncontradictory, I could not help thinking that they were the reproduction\nof those which men, deprived of common sense, express every day.\n\n\"The same hill produced a vegetation, affected in different ways, by\nreason of different causes; and the people, instead of taking into\nconsideration how carelessly they had chosen the location of their\nplantation, preferred to attribute the defect to the site itself, rather\nthan to their lack of precaution.\n\n\"Both of them were suffering from a hurtful exaggeration, but each one\nexplained it in a way arbitrarily exclusive.\n\n\"He of the north made out that the sun never shone on the summit of\nYung-Tshi, and the inhabitant of the south affirmed that the\nhealth-giving shade was unknown there.\"\n\nThis is why it is indispensable to the successful resolution of the\nthousand and one problems of daily life, both those whose sole importance\nis derived from their multiplicity and those whose seriousness justly\ndemands our attention, to employ the very simple method which prescribes\nthat we place ourselves mentally in the position and circumstances of the\nperson with whom we are discussing.\n\nIf each one of the inhabitants of Yung-Tshi had followed this precept,\ninstead of declaring that the hill never received the sun or that shade\nnever fell upon it, they would each one have thought for himself.\n\n\"At what conclusions should I arrive, if I had planted my trees on the\nopposite side?\"\n\nFrom the reasoning which would have ensued, the following truth would\nmost certainly have been revealed.\n\n\"If I were in the other man's place, I should certainly think as he\ndoes.\"\n\nThis premise once laid down, the conclusion would be reached; all the\nmore exact, because, without abandoning their arguments, each one would\npresent those which it is easy to turn against an adversary.\n\nBefore solving a problem, he who desires to avoid making a mistake must\nnever fail to ask himself this question:\n\nWhat should I do if my interests were those of the opposite party?\n\nOr, yet again:\n\nWhat should I reply if my adversaries used the same language to me as I\npurpose using when addressing them?\n\nThis method is valuable in that it raises unexpected objections, which\nthe mind would not consider if one had simply studied the question from\none's own point of view.\n\nIt is a self-evident fact that, according to the state of mind in which\nwe are, things assume different proportions in the rendering of\njudgment on them.\n\nWe must not argue as children do, who, not having the sense of\ncalculating distances, ask how the man standing near to them will be able\nto enter his house, which they see far away, and which seems to them of\nmicroscopic dimensions.\n\nOne departs from common sense when one attributes to insignificant things\na fundamental value.\n\nWe neglect to consider it in a most serious way when we adopt principles\ncontrary to the general consensus of opinion accredited in the\nenvironment in which we are living.\n\n\"A high dignitary of the court,\" says Yoritomo, \"would be lacking in\ncommon sense if he wished to conduct himself as a peasant and, on the\nother hand, a peasant would give a proof of great folly were he to\nattempt the remodeling of his life on the principles adopted by\ncourtiers.\n\n\"He who, passing his life in camps, wished to think and to act like the\nphilosopher, whose books are his principal society, would cause people to\ndoubt his wisdom; and the thinker who should adopt publicly the methods\nof a swashbuckler would only inspire contempt.\"\n\nIn ordinary life, one ought to consider this faculty of common sense as\nthe ruling principle of conduct.\n\nOne can be lacking in thought, in audacity, in brilliant qualities, if\nonly one possesses common sense.\n\nIt takes the place of intelligence in many people, whose minds,\nunaccustomed to subtle argument, only lend themselves to very simple\nreasoning.\n\nA versatile mentality rarely belongs to such minds, because it is not\ntheir forte to unfold hidden truths.\n\nIt walks in the light and keeps in the very middle of the road, far from\nthe ambushes which may be concealed by the hedges of the cross-roads.\n\nMany people gifted with common sense but deprived of ordinary\nintelligence have amassed a fortune, but never, no matter how clever he\nmay be, has a man known success, if he has not strictly observed the laws\nof common sense.\n\nIt is not only in debates that the presence of this virtue should make\nitself felt, but every act of our life should be impregnated with it.\n\nThere are no circumstances, no matter how insignificant they may appear,\nwhere the intervention of common sense would be undesirable.\n\nIt is only common sense which will indicate the course of conduct to be\npursued, so as not to hurt the feelings or offend the prejudices of\nother people.\n\nThere are great savants, whose science, freed from all puerile beliefs,\nrises above current superstition.\n\nThey would consider it a great lack of common sense if they expounded\ntheir theories before the humble-minded, whose blind faith would be\ninjured thereby.\n\nOf two things one is certain: either they would refuse to believe such\ntheories and this display of learning would be fruitless, or their\nhabitual credulity would be troubled and they would lose their\ntranquility without acquiring a conviction sufficiently strong to give\nthem perfect peace of mind.\n\nEven in things which concern health, common sense is applicable to\ndaily life.\n\nIt is common sense which will preserve us from excesses, by establishing\nthe equilibrium of the annoyances which result from them, with reference\nto the doubtful pleasure which they procure.\n\nThanks to common sense, we shall avoid the weariness of late nights and\nthe danger of giving oneself up to the delights of dissipation.\n\n\"It is common sense,\" says the philosopher, \"which forces us at a banquet\nto raise our eyes to the hour-glass to find out how late it is.\n\n\"It is under the inspiration of this great quality of mind that we shall\navoid putting to our lips the cup already emptied many times.\n\n\"Common sense will reflect upon the mirror of our imagination the specter\nof the day after the orgy; it will evoke the monster of the headache\nwhich works upon the suffering cranium with its claws of steel; and, at\nsome future day, it will show us precocious decrepitude as well as all\nbodily ills which precede the final decay of those who yield to their\npassions. It will also impose upon us the performance of duty under the\nform which it has adopted for each individual.\n\n\"Common sense represents for some the care of public affairs; for others\nthose of the family; for us all the great desire to leave intact to our\ndescendants the name which we have received from our fathers.\n\n\"For some of those still very young, it is like a lover long desired!\n\n\"For sages and warriors, it blows the trumpet of glory.\n\n\"Finally, common sense is the chosen purpose of every one, courted,\ndemanded, desired or accepted, but it exists, and under the penalty of\nmost serious inconveniences it does not permit us to forget its\nexistence.\"\n\nComing down from the heights where he allows himself to be transported at\ntimes for a brief moment, Yoritomo tells us the part played by common\nsense with reference to health.\n\n\"Common sense\" he assures us, \"is the wisest physician whom it is\npossible to consult.\n\n\"If we followed its advice, we should avoid the thousand and one little\nannoyances of illnesses caused by imprudence.\n\n\"The choice of clothing would be regulated according to the existing\ntemperature.\n\n\"One would avoid the passing at once from extreme heat to extreme cold.\n\n\"One would never proffer this stupid reflection: Bah! I shall take care\nof myself, which impudent people declare when exposing themselves\ncarelessly to take cold.\n\n\"We should understand that disease is a cause of unparalleled disorder\nand discord.\n\n\"In addition to the thought of possible sufferings, that of grief for\nthose whom we love, joined to the apprehension of a cessation of social\nfunctions, on whose achievement depends our fortune, would suffice to\neliminate all idea of imprudence, if we had the habit of allowing common\nsense to participate in all our actions of daily life.\n\n\"To those who walk under its guidance; it manifests itself without\nceasing; it dominates all actions without their being compelled to\nseparate themselves from it.\n\n\"It is unconsciously that they appeal to common sense and they have no\nneed of making an effort to follow its laws.\n\n\"Common sense is the intelligence of instinct.\"\n\n\n\n\nLESSON VII\n\nPOWER OF DEDUCTION\n\n\nBefore entering the path which relates directly to the intellectual\nefforts concerning the acquisition of common sense, the Shogun calls our\nattention to the power of deduction.\n\n\"It is only,\" said he, \"where we are sufficiently permeated with all the\nprinciples of judgment that we shall be able to think of acquiring this\nquality, so necessary to the harmony of life.\n\n\"The most important of all the mental operations which ought to be\npractised by him who desires common sense to reign supreme in all his\nactions and decisions, is incontestably deduction.\n\n\"When the union of ideas, which judgment permits, is made with perception\nand exactness, there results always an analysis, which, if practised\nfrequently, will end by becoming almost a mechanical act.\n\n\"It is, however, well to study the phases of this analysis, in order to\norganize them methodically first.\n\n\"Later, when the mind shall be sufficiently drilled in this kind of\ngymnastics, all their movements will be repeated in an almost unconscious\nway, and deduction, that essential principle of common sense, will be\nself-imposed.\n\n\"In order that deductions may be a natural development, the element\nrelating to those which should be the object of judgment should be\ngrouped first.\n\n\"The association of statements is an excellent method for it introduces\ninto thought the existence of productive agents.\n\n\"We have already spoken of the grouping of thoughts, which is a more\nsynthetical form of that selection.\n\n\"Instead of allowing it to be enlarged by touching lightly on all that\nwhich is connected with the subject, it is a question, on the contrary,\nof confining it to the facts relating to only one object.\n\n\"These facts should be drawn from the domain of the past; by comparison,\nthey can be brought to the domain of the present in order to be able to\nassociate the former phenomena with those from which it is a question of\ndrawing deductions.\n\n\"It is rarely that these latter depend on one decision alone, even when\nthey are presented under the form of a single negation or affirmation.\n\n\"Deduction is always the result of many observations, formulated with\ngreat exactness, which common sense binds together.\n\n\"That which is called a line of action is always suggested by the\nanalysis of the events which were produced under circumstances analogous\nto those which exist now.\n\n\"From the result of these observations, the habit of thinking permits of\ndrawing deductions and common sense concludes the analysis.\n\n\"The method of deduction rests upon this.\n\n\"One thing being equal to a previous one should produce the same effects.\n\n\"If we find ourselves faced by an incident that our memory can assimilate\nwith another incident of the same kind, we must deduce the following\nchain of reasoning:\n\n\"First, the incident of long ago has entailed inevitable consequences.\n\n\"Secondly, the incident of to-day ought to produce the same effects,\nunless the circumstances which surround it are different.\n\n\"It is then a question of analyzing the circumstances and of weighing the\ncauses whose manifestation could determine a disparity in the results.\n\n\"We shall interest ourselves first in the surroundings for thus, as we\nhave said, habits of thought and feeling vary according to the epoch and\nthe environment.\n\n\"A comparison will be established between persons or things, in order to\nbe absolutely convinced of their degree of conformity.\n\n\"The state of mind in which we were when the previous events were\nmanifested will be considered, and we shall not fail to ascertain\nplainly the similarity or change of humor at the moment as related to\nthat of the past.\n\n\"It is also of importance to observe the state of health, for under the\naffliction of sickness things assume very easily a hostile aspect.\n\n\"It would be wrong to attribute to events judged during an illness the\nsame value which is given to them at this present moment.\n\n\"When one is absolutely decided as to the relation of new perceptions and\nmental representations, one can calculate exactly the degree of\ncomparison.\n\n\"The moment will then have arrived to synthesize all the observations and\nto draw from them the following deductions:\n\n\"First, like causes ought, all things being equal, to produce like\neffects.\n\n\"Secondly, the event which is in question will therefore have the same\nconsequences as the previous one, since it is presented under the same\nconditions.\n\n\"Or again:\n\n\"Being granted the principle that like causes produce like effects, as I\nhave just affirmed, and that there exist certain incompatibilities\nbetween the contingencies of the past and those of to-day, one must allow\nthat these incompatibilities will produce different results.\n\n\"And, after this reasoning, the deductions will be established by\nconstituting a comparison in favor of either the present or past state\nof things.\"\n\nBut the philosopher, who thinks of everything, has foreseen the case\nwhere false ideas have obscured the clearness of the deductions, and he\nsaid to us:\n\n\"The association of false ideas, if it does not proceed from the\ndifficulty of controlling things, is always in ungovernable opposition to\nthe veracity of the deduction.\n\n\"What would be thought of a man of eighty years who, coming back to\nhis country after a long absence, said, on seeing the family roof from\na distance:\n\n\"'When I was twenty years old, in leaving here, it took me twenty\nminutes to reach the home of my parents, so I shall reach the threshold\nin twenty minutes.'\n\n\"The facts would be exact in principle.\n\n\"The distance to be covered would be the same; but legs of eighty\nyears have not the same agility as those of very young people, and in\npredicting that he will reach the end of his walk in the same number\nof minutes as he did in the past, the old man would deceive himself\nmost surely.\n\n\"If, on the contrary, on reaching the same place he perceived that a new\nroute had been made, and that instead of a roundabout way of approach, as\nin the past, the house was now in a straight line from the point where he\nwas looking at it, it would be possible to estimate approximately the\nnumber of minutes which he could gain on the time employed in the past,\nby calculating the delay imposed upon him by his age and his infirmities.\n\n\"Those to whom deduction is familiar, at times astonish thoughtless\npersons by the soundness of their judgment.\n\n\"A prince drove to his home in the country in a sumptuous equipage.\n\n\"He was preceded by a herald and borne in a palanquin by four servants,\nwho were replaced by others at the first signs of fatigue, in order that\nthe speed of the journey should never be slackened.\n\n\"As they were mounting, with great difficulty, a zigzag road which led up\nalong the side of a hill, one of these men cried out:\n\n\"'Stop,' said he, 'in the name of Buddha, stop!'\n\n\"The prince leaned out from the palanquin to ask the cause of this\nexclamation:\n\n\"'My lord,' cried the man, 'if you care to live, tell your porters to\nstop!'\n\n\"The great man shrugged his shoulders and turning toward his master of\nceremonies, who was riding at his side, said:\n\n\"'See what that man wants.'\n\n\"But scarcely had the officer allowed his horse to take a few steps in\nthe direction of the man who had given warning when the palanquin, with\nthe prince and his bearers, rolled down a precipice, opened by the\nsinking in of the earth.\n\n\"They raised them all up very much hurt, and the first action of the\nprince, who was injured, was to have arrested the one who, according to\nhim, had evoked an evil fate.\n\n\"He was led, then and there, to the nearest village and put into a cell.\n\n\"The poor man protested.\n\n\"'I have only done what was natural,' said he. 'I am going to explain it,\nbut I pray you let me see the prince; I shall not be able to justify\nmyself when he is ill with fever.'\n\n\"'What do you mean,' they replied, 'do you prophesy that the prince will\nhave a fever?'\n\n\"'He is going to have it.'\n\n\"'You see, you are a sorcerer,' said the jailer, 'you make predictions.'\n\n\"And then he shut him in prison, to go away and to relate his\nconversation to them all.\n\n\"During this time, they called in a healer who stated that the wounds of\nthe great nobleman were not mortal in themselves, but that the fever\nwhich had declared itself could become dangerous.\n\n\"He was cured after long months.\n\n\"During this time the poor man languished in his prison, from whence he\nwas only taken to appear before the judges.\n\n\"Accused of sorcery and of using black magic, he explained very simply\nthat he had foreseen the danger, because in raising his eyes he had\nnoticed that the part of the ground over which the herald had passed was\nsinking, and that he had drawn the following conclusions:\n\n\"The earth seemed to have only a medium thickness.\n\n\"Under the feet of the herald he had seen it crumble and fall in.\n\n\"He had deduced from this that a weight five times as heavy added to that\nof the palanquin, would not fail to produce a landslide.\n\n\"As to the prediction concerning the fever, it was based on what he had\nseen when in the war.\n\n\"He had then observed that every wound is always followed by a\ndisposition to fever; he therefore could not fail to deduce that the\nserious contusions occasioned by the fall of the prince would produce the\ninevitable consequences.\n\n\"The judge was very much imprest with the perspicacity of this man; not\nonly did he give him his liberty, but he engaged him in his personal\nservice and in due time enabled him to make his fortune.\"\n\nWe do not wish to affirm--any more than Yoritomo, for that matter--that\nfortunate deductions are always so magnificently rewarded as were those\nof this man.\n\nHowever, without the causes being so striking, many people have owed\ntheir fortune to the faculty which they possest of deducing results\nwhere the analogy of the past circumstances suggested to them what\nwould happen.\n\nHe warns us against the propensity which we have of too easily avoiding a\nconclusion which does not accord with our desires.\n\n\"Too many people,\" said he, \"wish to undertake to make deductions by\neliminating the elements which deprive them of a desired decision.\n\n\"They do not fail either to exaggerate the reasons which plead in favor\nof this decision; also we see many persons suffer from reasoning, instead\nof feeling the good effects of it.\"\n\nThose who cultivate common sense will never fall into this error, for\nthey will have no difficulty in convincing themselves that by acting thus\nthey do not deceive any one except themselves.\n\nBy glossing over truth in order to weaken the logical consequences of\ndeductions they are the first to be the victims of this childish trick.\n\nThat which is called false deduction is rarely aught save the desire to\nescape a resolution which a just appraisement would not fail to dictate.\n\nIt might be, also, that this twisting of judgment comes from a person\nhaving been, in some past time, subjected to unfortunate influences.\n\nBy devoting oneself to the evolution of thought, of which we have already\nspoken when presenting the symbolical fan, and above all, by adopting the\nprecepts which, following the method of Yoritomo, we are going to develop\nin the following lessons, we shall certainly succeed in checking the\nerrors of false reasoning.\n\n\"The important thing,\" said he, \"is not to let wander the thought, which,\nafter resting for a moment on the subject with which we are concerned and\nafter touching lightly on ideas of a similar character, begins to stray\nvery far from its basic principles.\n\n\"Have you noted the flight of certain birds?\n\n\"They commence by gathering at one point, then they describe a series of\ncircles around this point, at first very small, but whose circumference\nenlarges at every sweep.\n\n\"Little by little the central point is abandoned, they no longer approach\nit, and disappear in the sky, drawn by their fancy toward another point\nwhich they will leave very soon.\n\n\"The thoughts of one who does not know how to gather them together and to\nconcentrate them are like these birds.\n\n\"They start from a central point, then spread out, at first without\ngetting far from this center, but soon they lose sight of it and fly\ntoward a totally different subject that a mental representation has\njust produced.\n\n\"And this lasts until the moment when, in a sudden movement, the first\none is conscious of this wandering tendency.\n\n\"But it is often too late to bring back these wanderers to the initial\nidea, for, in the course of their circuits, they have brushed against a\nhundred others, which are confounded with the first, weaken it, and take\naway its exact proportions.\n\n\"The great stumbling-block again is that of becoming lost in the details\nwhose multiplicity prevents us from discerning their complete function in\nthe act of practising deduction.\n\n\"It is better, in the case where our perception finds itself assailed by\nthe multitude of these details, to proceed by the process of elimination,\nin order not to become involved in useless and lazy efforts.\n\n\"In this case we must act like a man who must determine the color of a\nmaterial at a distance where the tiny designs stand out in a relief of\nwhite on a background of black.\n\n\"Suppose that he is placed at a distance too great to perceive\nthis detail.\n\n\"What should he do to be able to give the best possible description?\n\n\"He will proceed by elimination.\n\n\"The material is neither red nor green; orange and violet must be set\naside, as well as all the subordinate shades.\n\n\"It has a dull appearance, hence, it is gray; unless.... And here mental\nactivity comes into play and will suggest to him that gray is composed of\nblack and white.\n\n\"He will then be sure to form a judgment which will not be spoiled\nby falsity, if he declares that the material is a mixture of black\nand white.\n\n\"Later, by drawing nearer, he will be able to analyze the designs and to\nconvince himself of their respective form and color, but by deducing that\nthe material was made up of the mixture of two colors he will have come\nas near as possible to the truth:\n\n\"Deduction never prejudges; it is based on facts; only on things\naccomplished; it unfolds the teaching that we ought to obtain as a\nresult.\"\n\nAgain the Shogun recommends to us the union of thoughts and the\ncontinuous examination of past incidents in the practise of deductions.\n\n\"If on entering a room,\" said he, \"we are at times confused, it happens\nalso that we correct this impression after a more attentive examination.\n\n\"The gilding is of inferior quality; the materials are of cotton, the\npaintings ordinary, and the mattings coarse.\n\n\"At first sight we should have deduced, judging from appearances, that\nthe possessor of this house was a very rich man, but a second examination\nwill cause us to discover embarrassment and anxiety.\n\n\"It is the same with all decisions that we must make.\n\n\"Before devoting ourselves to deductions inspired by the general aspect\nof things, it is well to examine them one by one and to discover their\ndefects or recognize their good qualities.\n\n\"We shall be able thus to acquire that penetration of mind whose\ndevelopment, by leading us toward wise deductions, will bring us to the\ndiscovery of the truth.\"\n\n\n\n\nLESSON VIII\n\nHOW TO ACQUIRE COMMON SENSE\n\n\nCommon Sense is a science, whatever may be said; according to Yoritomo,\nit does not blossom naturally in the minds of men; it demands\ncultivation, and the art of reasoning is acquired like all the faculties\nwhich go to make up moral equilibrium.\n\n\"This quality,\" said the philosopher, \"is obscure and intangible, like\nthe air we breathe.\n\n\"Like the air we breathe, it is necessary to our existence, it surrounds\nus, envelops us, and is indispensable to the harmony of our mental life.\n\n\"To acquire this precious gift, many conditions are obligatory, the\nprinciple ones being:\n\n\"Sincerity of perception.\n\n\"Art of the situation.\n\n\"Attention.\n\n\"Approximation.\n\n\"Experience.\n\n\"Comparison.\n\n\"Analysis.\n\n\"Synthesis.\n\n\"Destination.\n\n\"Direction.\n\n\"And lastly the putting of the question.\n\n\"It is very clear that without exactness of perception we could not\npretend to judge justly; it would then be impossible for us to hear the\nvoice of common sense, if we did not strive to develop it.\n\n\"Perception is usually combined with what they call in philosophical\nlanguage adaptation.\n\n\"Otherwise it is difficult, when recognizing a sensation, not to\nattribute it at once to the sentiment which animated it at the time of\nits manifestation.\n\n\"The first condition, then, in the acquiring of common sense is to\nmaintain perfection in all its pristine exactness, by abstracting the\ncontingencies which could influence us.\n\n\"If we do not endeavor to separate from our true selves the suggestions\nof sense-consciousness, we shall reach the point where perception is\ntransformed into conception, that is to say, we shall no longer obtain\nreality alone, but a modified reality.\n\n\"With regard to perception, if we understand its truthfulness; it will be\na question for reawakening it, of placing ourselves mentally in the\nenvironment where it was produced, and of awakening the memory, so as to\nbe able to distinguish, without mistake, the limits within which it is\nnarrowly confined.\n\n\"The art of situation consists in reproducing, mentally, past facts,\nallowing for the influence of the surroundings at that time, as compared\nwith the present environment.\n\n\"One must not fail to think about the influences to which one has been\nsubjected since this time.\n\n\"It is possible that life during its development in the aspirant to\ncommon sense may have changed the direction of his first conceptions\neither by conversation or by reading or by the reproduction of divers\nnarrations.\n\n\"It would then be a lack of common sense to base an exact recollection of\nformer incidents on the recent state of being of the soul, without\nseeking to reproduce the state of mind in which one was at the epoch when\nthose incidents occurred.\n\n\"Activity of mind, stimulated to the utmost, is able to give a color to\npreceding impressions, which they never have had, and, in this case\nagain, the recollection will be marred by inexactness.\n\n\"The art of situation requires the strictest application and on this\naccount it is a valuable factor in the acquirement of common sense.\n\n\"Attention vitalizes our activity in order to accelerate the development\nof a definite purpose toward which it can direct its energy.\n\n\"It could be analyzed as follows:\n\n\"First, to see;\n\n\"Secondly, to hear.\n\n\"The functions of the other senses come afterward, and their\nsusceptibility can attract our attention to the sensations which they\ngive us, such as the sense of smell, of touch, of taste.\n\n\"These purely physical sensations possess, however, a moral\nsignification, from which we are permitted to make valuable deductions.\n\n\"The first two have three distinct phases:\n\n\"First degree, to see.\n\n\"Second degree, to look.\n\n\"Third degree, to observe.\n\n\"If we see a material, its color strikes us first and we say: I have seen\na red or yellow material, and this will be all.\n\n\"Applying ourselves more closely, we look at it and we define the\npeculiarities of the color. We say: it is bright red or dark red.\n\n\"In observing it we determine to what use it is destined.\n\n\"The eye is attracted by:\n\n\"The color.\n\n\"The movement.\n\n\"The form.\n\n\"The number.\n\n\"The duration.\n\n\"We have just spoken of the color.\n\n\"The movement is personified by a series of gestures that people make or\nby a series of changes to which they subject things.\n\n\"The form is represented by the different outlines.\n\n\"The number by their quantity.\n\n\"The duration by their length; one will judge of the length of time it\ntakes to walk a road by seeing the length of it.\n\n\"The act of listening is divided into three degrees.\n\n\"First degree, to hear.\n\n\"Second degree, to understand.\n\n\"Third degree, to reflect.\n\n\"If some one walking in the country hears a dog bark he perceives first a\nsound: this is the act of hearing.\n\n\"He will distinguish that this sound is produced by the barking of a dog;\nthis is the act of understanding.\n\n\"Reflection will lead him then to think that a house or a human being is\nnear, for a dog goes rarely alone.\n\n\"If the things which are presented to our sight are complex, those which\nstrike our ears are summed up in one word, sound, which has only one\ndefinition, the quality of the sound.\n\n\"Then follow the innumerable categories of sound that we distinguish only\nby means of comprehension and reflection, rendered so instinctive by\nhabit that we may call them automatic, so far as those which relate to\nfamiliar sounds.\n\n\"The example which we have just given is a proof of this fact.\n\n\"Let us add that this habit develops each sensitive faculty to its\nhighest degree.\n\n\"The inhabitants of the country can distinguish each species of bird by\nlistening to his song; and the hermits, the wanderers, those who live\nwith society on a perpetual war footing, perceive sounds which would not\nstrike the ears of civilized people.\n\n\"Approximation is also one of the stones by whose aid we construct the\nedifice of common sense.\n\n\"Concerning the calculations of probabilities, the application of\napproximation will allow us to estimate the capacity or the probable\nduration of things.\n\n\"We can not say positively whether a man will live a definite number of\nyears but we can affirm that he will never live until he is two hundred.\n\n\"There are, for approbation, certain known limits which serve as a basis\nfor the construction of reasoning, inspired by common sense.\n\n\"It can be affirmed, in a positive way, that, if the trunk of a tree were\nfloating easily, without sinking to the bottom of the water, it would not\nfloat the same if thirty men were to ride astride of it.\n\n\"The initial weight of the tree permits it to maintain itself on the\nsurface; but if it be increased to an exaggerated total, we can, without\nhesitation, calculate indirectly the moment when it will disappear,\ndragging with it the imprudent men who trusted themselves to it.\n\n\"Everything in life is a question of approximation.\n\n\"The house which is built for a man will be far larger than the kennel,\ndestined to shelter a dog, because the proportions have been calculated,\nby approximation, according to the relative difference between the\nstature of the human and canine species.\n\n\"Clothing is also suited to the temperature.\n\n\"One naturally thinks that, below a certain degree of cold, it is\nnecessary to change light clothes for those made of thicker material.\n\n\"As with the majority of the constructive elements of common sense,\napproximation is always based on experience.\n\n\"It draws its conclusions from the knowledge of known limitations, whose\naffirmation serves as a basis for the argument which determines deduction\nin a most exact manner.\n\n\"Experience itself depends on memory, which permits us to recall\nfacts and to draw our conclusions from them, on which facts reasoning\nis based.\"\n\nThe Shogun does not fail to draw our attention to the difference between\nexperience and experimentation.\n\n\"This last,\" said he, \"only serves to incite the manifestation of\nthe first.\n\n\"It consists of determining the production of a phenomenon whose\nexistence will aid us in establishing the underlying principles of an\nobservation which interprets the event.\n\n\"That is what is called experience.\n\n\"Comparison is a mental operation which permits us to bring things that\nwe desire to understand to a certain point.\n\n\"It is comparison which has divided time according to periods, which the\nmoon follows during its entire length.\n\n\"It is by comparing their different aspects and by calculating the\nduration of their transformations, that men have been able to divide time\nas they do in all the countries of the world.\n\n\"The science of numbers is also born of comparison, which has been\nestablished between the quantities that they represent.\n\n\"This is the art of calculating the differences existing between each\nthing, by determining the relativeness of their respective proportions.\n\n\"Comparison acts on the mind automatically, as a rule.\n\n\"It is indispensable to the cultivation of common sense, for it furnishes\nthe means of judging with full knowledge of all the circumstances.\n\n\"Analysis is an operation, which consists of separating each detail from\nthe whole and of examining these details separately, without losing sight\nof their relationship to the central element.\n\n\"Analysis of the same object, while being scrupulously exact, can,\nhowever, differ materially in its application, according to the way that\nthe object is related to this or that group of circumstances.\n\n\"There are, however, immutable things.\n\n\"For example: the letters of the alphabet, the elementary sounds, the\ncolors etc., etc.\n\n\"It suffices to quote only these three elements; one can easily\nunderstand that the most elaborate manuscript is composed of only a\ndefinite number of letters always repeating themselves, whose\njuxtaposition forms phrases, then chapters, and finally the\ncomplete work.\n\n\"Music is composed only of seven sounds whose different combinations\nproduce an infinite variety of melodies.\n\n\"Elementary colors are only three in number.\n\n\"All the others gravitate around them.\n\n\"Therefore, these same letters, these same notes, these same colors,\naccording to their amalgamation, can change in aspect and cooperate in\nthe production of different effects.\n\n\"The same letters can express, according to the order in which they are\nplaced, terror or confidence, joy or grief.\n\n\"The same is true of notes and colors.\n\n\"Common sense ought then, considering these rules, to know how to analyze\nall the details and, having done this, to coordinate and to classify\nthem, in order to distinguish them easily.\n\n\"Coordination and classification form an integral part of common sense.\"\n\nAnd Yoritomo, who delights in reducing the most complex questions to\nexamples of the rarest simplicity, says to us:\n\n\"I am supposing that one person says to another, I have just met a negro.\nThe interlocutor, as well as he who mechanically registers this fact,\nwithout thinking, gives himself up to analysis and to coordination which\nalways precedes synthesis.\n\n\"Without being aware of this mental action, their minds will be occupied\nfirst with the operations of perception then of classification.\n\n\"This negro was a man of a color which places him in a certain group of\nthe human race.\n\n\"It is always thus that common sense proceeds, its principal merit being\nto know how to unite present perceptions with those previously cognized,\nthen to understand how to coordinate them so as to be able to group them\nconcretely, that is to say, to synthesize them.\n\n\"Destination is defined as the purpose or object, born of deduction and\nof classification.\n\n\"Destination does not permit of losing sight of the end which is\nproposed.\n\n\"It allows the consideration of the purpose to predominate always, and\ndirects all actions toward this purpose, these actions being absolutely\nthe demonstrations of this unique thought.\n\n\"Habits, acquired in view of certain realizations, ought to be dropt from\nthe moment the purpose is accomplished, or that it is weakened.\"\n\nIt is by absolutely perpetuating those habits, whose pretext has\ndisappeared, that one sees the achievement of certain actions which have\nbeen roughly handled by common sense.\n\n\"There are,\" again says the philosopher, \"certain customs, whose origin\nit is impossible to remember; at the time of their birth, they were\nengendered by necessity, but even tho their purpose be obliterated,\ntradition has preserved them in spite of everything, and those who\nobserve them do not take into consideration their absurdity.\n\n\"People of common sense refrain from lending themselves to these useless\npractises, or, if they consent to allow them a place in their thoughts it\nis that they attribute to them some reason for existence, either\npractical or sentimental.\"\n\nDirection is indicated by circumstances, by environment, or by necessity.\n\nThere is direction of resolutions as well as direction of a journey; it\nis necessary, from the beginning, to consider well the choice of a good\nroute, after having done everything possible to discriminate carefully\nbetween it and all other routes proposed.\n\nIt happens, however, that the way leads also through the cross-roads; it\nis even indispensable to leave the short cuts in order to trace the\noutline of the obstacles.\n\nDirection is, then, an important factor in the acquiring of common sense.\n\nThe putting of the question takes its character from comparison, from\nexperience, and principally from approximation; but it is in itself a\nsynthesis of all the elements which compose common sense.\n\nHe who wishes to acquire common sense should be impregnated with all that\nhas preceded.\n\nThen he will discipline himself, so as to be able to judge, by himself,\nof the degree of reason which he has the right to assume.\n\nHe will begin by evoking some subject, comparing its visual forms with,\nthose forms which he understands the best, in other words, to the\nperceptions which are the most familiar to him.\n\nIf it concerns a question to be solved, he will try to recall some\nsimilar subject, and establish harmony, by making them both relative to a\ncommon antecedent.\n\nYoritomo advises choosing simple thoughts for the beginning.\n\n\"One will say, for example:\n\n\"Such a substance is a poison; the seeds of this fruit contain a weak\ndose of it; these seeds could then become a dangerous food, if one\nabsorbed a considerable quantity.\n\n\"Common sense will thus indicate a certain abstaining from eating of it.\n\n\"Then one may extend his argument to things of a greater importance, but\ntaking great care to keep within the narrow limits of rudimentary logic.\n\n\"One must be impregnated with this principle:\n\n\"Two things equal to a third demand an affirmative judgment or decision.\n\n\"In the opposite case the negative deduction is enjoined.\n\n\"It is by deductions from the most ordinary facts that one succeeds in\nmaking common sense intervene automatically in all our judgments.\n\n\"What would be thought of one who, finding himself in a forest at the\ntime of a violent storm, would reason as follows:\n\n\"First: The high summits attract lightning.\n\n\"Secondly: Here is a giant tree.\n\n\"Thirdly: I'm going to take refuge there.\n\n\"Then it is that common sense demands that the state his three\npropositions as follows:\n\n\"First: High summits attract lightning.\n\n\"Secondly: Here is a giant tree.\n\n\"Thirdly: I'm going to avoid its proximity because it will surely be\ndangerous.\n\n\"If he acted otherwise; if, in spite of his knowledge of the danger, he\ntook shelter under the branches of the gigantic tree, exposing himself to\nbe struck by lightning, one could, in this case, only reproach him with\nimprudence and lay the blame to the lack of common sense which allowed\nhim to perform the act that logic condemned.\"\n\nNow the old Nippon speaks to us of the means to employ, that we may avoid\npronouncing too hasty judgments, which are always, of necessity, weakened\nby a too great indulgence for ourselves and at the same time too great a\nseverity for others.\n\n\"I was walking one day,\" said he, \"on the shores of a lake, when I\ndiscovered a man sitting at the foot of a bamboo tree, in an attitude of\nthe greatest despair.\n\n\"Approaching him, I asked him the cause of his grief.\n\n\"'Alas!' said he to me, 'the gods are against me; everything which I\nundertake fails, and all evils crush me.\n\n\"'After the one which has just befallen me only one course of action is\nleft to me, to throw myself in the lake. But I am young, and I am weeping\nfor myself before resolving to take such a step.'\n\n\"And he related to me how, after many attempts without success, he had at\nlast gained a certain sum of money, the loss of which he had just\nexperienced.\n\n\"In what way did you lose it?\" I asked him.\n\n\"'I put it in this bag.'\n\n\"'Has some one stolen it?'\n\n\"'No, it has slipt through this rent.'\n\n\"And he showed me a bag, whose ragged condition confirmed, and at the\nsame time illustrated his statement.\n\n\"'Listen,' said I, sitting down beside him, 'you are simply devoid of\ncommon sense, by invoking the hatred of the gods! You alone are the cause\nof your present misery.\n\n\"'If you had simply reasoned before placing your money in this bag, this\nwould not have happened to you.'\n\n\"And as he opened his eyes wide:\n\n\"'You would have thought this,' I resumed:\n\n\"'The material, very much worn, is incapable of standing any weight\nwithout tearing.\n\n\"'Now, the money which I possess is heavy, my bag is worn out.\n\n\"'I shall not, therefore, put my money in this bag or, at least, I shall\ntake care to line it beforehand with a solid piece of leather.\n\n\"'From this moment,' I proceeded, 'there only remains one thing for you\nto do, always consult common sense before coming to any conclusion, and\nyou will always succeed.\n\n\"'As for your opinion concerning the hatred of the gods for you, if\nyou will once more call common sense to your assistance you will\nreason as follows:\n\n\"'Gracious divinities protect only wise people.\n\n\"'Now, I have acted like a fool.\n\n\"'It is, therefore, natural that they should turn away from me.'\n\n\"How many useless imprecations would be avoided,\" adds the Shogun, \"if it\nwere given to men to know how to employ the arguments which common sense\ndictates, in order to distribute the weight of the mistakes committed\namong those who deserve the burden, without, at the same time, forgetting\nto assume our own share of the responsibility if we have erred.\n\n\"Nothing is more sterile than regrets or reproaches when they do not\ncarry with them the resolution never again to fall into the same error.\"\n\nAfterward the philosopher demonstrates to us the necessity of abstracting\nall personality from the exercises which combine for the attainment of\ncommon sense.\n\n\"There is,\" said he, \"an obstacle against which all stupid people\nstumble; it is the act of reasoning under the influence of passion.\n\n\"Those who have not decided to renounce this method of arguing will never\nbe able to give a just decision.\n\n\"There are self-evident facts, which certain people refuse to admit,\nbecause this statement of the truth offends their sympathies or impedes\ntheir hatreds, and they force themselves to deny the evidence, hoping\nthus to deceive others regarding it.\n\n\"But truth is always the strongest and they soon become the solitary\ndupes of their own wilful blindness.\n\n\"The man of common sense knows how to recognize falsehood wherever he\nmeets it; he knows how vain it is to conceal a positive fact and also how\ndangerous it is to deceive oneself, a peril which increases in power, in\nproportion to the effort made to ignore it.\n\n\"He does not wish to imitate those pusillanimous people who prefer to\nlive in the agony of doubt rather than to look misfortunes in the\nface. He who is determined to acquire common sense will use the\nfollowing argument:\n\n\"Doubt is a conflict between two conclusions.\n\n\"So long as it exists it is impossible to adopt either.\n\n\"Serenity is unknown to those whom doubt attacks.\n\n\"To obtain peace, it is necessary to become enlightened.\n\n\"However, it is wise always to foresee the least happy issue and to\nprepare to support the consequences.\n\n\"The man who thinks thus will be stronger than adversity and will know\nhow to struggle with misfortune without allowing it to master him.\"\n\nIt is in these terms that Yoritomo initiates us into what he calls the\nmechanism of common sense; in other words, the art of acquiring by the\nsimplest reasoning this quality dull as iron, but, like it, also solid\nand durable.\n\n\n\n\nLESSON IX\n\nCOMMON SENSE AND ACTION\n\n\nThese qualities are two relatives very near of kin; but, just for this\nreason, they must not be confounded.\n\nWhile common sense is applied to all the circumstances of life, practical\nsense is applicable to useful things.\n\nCommon sense admits a very subtle logic which is, at times, a\nlittle complex.\n\nPractical sense reasons, starting from one point only; viz., material\nconveniences.\n\nIt is possible for this sense to be spoiled by egotism, if common sense\ndoes not come to its assistance.\n\nIt is by applying the discipline of reasoning to practical sense that it\nmodifies simple sense perception by urging it to ally itself with logic,\nwhich unites thought to sentiment and reason.\n\n\"The association of common sense and practical sense is necessary,\" says\nYoritomo, \"in order to produce new forms, at the same time restraining\nthe imagination within the limits of the most exact deductions and of the\nmost impartial judgment.\"\n\nScience is, in reality, a sort of common sense to which the rules of\nreasoning are applied, and is supported by arguments which practical\nsense directs into productive channels.\n\nThat which is called great common sense is none other than a quality with\nwhich people are endowed who show great mental equilibrium whenever it is\na question of resolving material problems.\n\nThese people are generally country people or persons of humble\nposition, whose physical organism has been developed without paying\nmuch attention to their intellectual education; they are, in fact,\nperfect candidates for the attainment of common sense, without having\nbeen educated to this end.\n\nTheir aptitude results from a constant habit of reflection which,\nrendering their attention very keen, has permitted them to observe the\nmost minute details, therefore they can form correct conclusions, when it\nis a question of things that are familiar to them.\n\nA peasant who has been taught by nature will be more skilled in\nprophesying about the weather than others.\n\nHe will also know how to assign a limit to the daily working hours, at\nthe same time stating the maximum time which one can give without\ndeveloping repulsion, which follows excesses of all kinds.\n\nIn his thought, very simple, but very direct, will be formulated this\nperfect reasoning:\n\nHealth is the first of all blessings, since without it we are incapable\nof appreciating the other joys of life.\n\nIf I compromise this possession I shall be insensible to all others.\n\nIt is, therefore, indispensable that I should measure my efforts, for,\nadmitting that a certain exaggerated labor brings me a fortune, I shall\nnot know how to enjoy it if illness accompanies it.\n\nThis is the logic which is called practical sense.\n\nYoritomo continues, saying that there is a very close connection between\nthe faculty of judging and that of deducing.\n\n\"Practical sense, allied to common sense, comes to the assistance of the\nlatter, when it is tempted to reject the chain of analogy, whose\nrepresentation too often draws one far from the initial subject.\n\n\"It facilitates coordination, clearness, and precision of thought.\n\n\"It knows how to consider contingencies, and never fails to have a clear\nunderstanding of relative questions.\"\n\nAnd to illustrate his theory, he cites us an example which many of our\nyoung contemporaries would do well to remember.\n\n\"There was,\" said he, \"in the village of Fu-Isher, a literary man, who\nwrote beautiful poems.\n\n\"He lived in great solitude, and no one would have heard of his existence\nif it had not been that my master, Lang-Ho, while walking in the woods\none day, was attracted by the harmonious sounds of poetry, which this\nyoung man was reciting, without thinking that he had any other listeners\nthan the birds of the forest.\n\n\"Lang-Ho made himself known to him and began to question him.\n\n\"He learned that he did not lack ambition, but, being poor, and having no\nmeans of approaching those who would have been able to patronize him, he\nwas singing of nature for his own pleasure, waiting patiently until he\nshould be able to influence the powerful ones of the earth to share his\nappreciation.\n\n\"Lang-Ho, touched by his youth and his ardor, pointed out to him the\ndwelling of a prince, a patron of the arts, and, at the same time, told\nhim how he ought to address the nobleman, assuring him that the fact of\nhis being a messenger from a friend of the prince would open the doors of\nthe palace to him.\n\n\"The next day the young poet presented himself at the home of the\ngreat lord, who, knowing that he had been sent by Lang-Ho, received\nhim in spite of the fact that he was suffering intensely from a\nviolent headache.\n\n\"He learned from the young man that he was a poet and treated him with\ngreat consideration, making him understand, however, that all sustained\nmental effort was insupportable to him on that day.\n\n\"But the poet, not paying attention to the prince's exprest desire,\nunrolled his manuscripts and began reading an interminable ode without\nnoticing the signs of impatience shown by his august hearer.\n\n\"He did not have the pleasure of finishing it.\n\n\"The prince, seeing that the reader did not understand his importunity,\nstruck a gong and ordered the servant who appeared to conduct the young\nman out of his presence.\n\n\"Later, he declared to Lang-Ho that his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 had no talent at all, and\nreprimanded him severely for having sent the poet to the palace.\n\n\"But my master did not like to be thus criticized.\n\n\"So, a little while after that, one day, when that same prince was in an\nagreeable frame of mind, Lang-Ho invited him to the reading of one of\nhis works.\n\n\"The nobleman declared that he had never heard anything more beautiful.\n\n\"'That is true,' said Lang-Ho, 'but you ought to have said this the first\ntime you heard it.'\n\n\"And he revealed to the prince that these verses were those of the young\nman whom he had judged so harshly.\"\n\nFrom this story two lessons may be drawn:\n\nThe first is, that if common sense indicates that judgment should not\nchange from scorn to enthusiasm, when it is a question of the same\nobject, practical sense insists that one should be certain of\nimpartiality of judgment, by avoiding the influence of questions which\nrelate to environment and surrounding circumstances.\n\nThe second concerns opportunity.\n\nWe have already had occasion to say how much some things, which seem\ndesirable at certain times, are questionable when the situation changes.\n\nBad humor creates ill-will; therefore it is abominably stupid to\nprovoke the manifestation of the second when one has proved the\nexistence of the first.\n\nIn order that there may be a connection between the faculty of judgment\nand that of deduction, it is essential that nothing should be allowed to\ninterpose itself between these two phases of the argument.\n\nHarmony between all judgments is founded on common sense, but it is\npractical common sense, which indicates this harmony with precision.\n\nIt is also practical common sense which serves as a guide to the orator\nwho wishes to impress his audience.\n\nHe will endeavor first to choose a subject which will interest those who\nlisten to him.\n\nIn this endeavor he ought, above all, to consult opportunity.\n\nAnd, as we have remarked on many occasions, the Shogun expresses theories\non this subject, to which the people of the twentieth century could not\ngive too much earnest consideration.\n\n\"There are,\" said he, \"social questions, as, for example, dress\nand custom.\n\n\"With time, opinions change, as do forms and manners, and this is quite\nreasonable.\n\n\"The progress of science by ameliorating the general conditions of\nexistence, introduces a need created by civilization which rejects\nbarbarous customs; the mentality of a warrior is not that of an\nagriculturist; the man who thinks about making his possessions productive\nhas not the same inclinations as he whose life is devoted to conquest,\nand the sweetness of living in serenity, by modifying the aspirations,\nmetamorphoses all things.\n\n\"In order to lead attention in the direction which is governed by reason,\nit is indispensable for the orator that he should expound a subject whose\ninterpretation will satisfy the demand of opportunity, which influences\nevery brain.\n\n\"Practical sense will make him take care to speak only of things that he\nhas studied thoroughly.\n\n\"It will induce him to expound his theory in such a way that his hearers\nwill have to make no effort to assimilate it.\n\n\"That which is not understood is easily criticized, and practical sense\nwould prevent an orator from attempting to establish an argument whose\npremises would offend common sense.\n\n\"He would be certain of failure in such a case.\n\n\"His efforts will be limited, then, to evoking common sense, by employing\npractical sense, so far as what refers to the application of principles\nwhich he desires to apply successfully.\"\n\nYoritomo recommends this affiliation for that which concerns the struggle\nagainst superstition.\n\n\"Superstition,\" he says, \"offends practical sense as well as common\nsense, for it rests on an erroneous analysis.\n\n\"Its foundation is always an observation marred by falsity, establishing\nan association between two facts which have nothing in common.\n\n\"There are people who reenter their homes if, when they reach the\nthreshold, they perceive a certain bird; others believe that they are\nthreatened with death if they meet a white cat.\"\n\nWithout going back to the days of Yoritomo, we shall find just as many\npeople who are the victims of superstitions concerning certain facts,\nwhich are only the observance of customs fallen into disuse, and whose\npractise has been perpetuated through the ages, altho, as we have said in\nthe preceding chapter, the purpose of the custom has disappeared, but the\ncustom itself has not been forgotten.\n\nIt is in this way that the origin of the superstition concerning salt\ndates back to the time of the Romans, who (while at variance with the\nprinciples of contemporary agriculture) sowed salt in the fields of their\nenemies and thought that by so doing they would make them sterile.\n\nTo that far-distant epoch can be traced the origin of the superstition\nconcerning the spilling of salt.\n\nWhatever may have been its cause, superstition is the enemy of common\nsense, for, when it does not originate in an abolished custom, it is the\nproduct of a personal impression, associating two ideas absolutely\nunconnected.\n\n\"Practical sense,\" Yoritomo continues, \"is a most valuable talent to\ncultivate, for it prevents our judging from appearances.\n\n\"Frivolous minds are always inclined to draw conclusions from passing\nimpressions; they adopt neither foresight, nor precaution, nor\napproximation.\n\n\"There are people who will condemn a country as utterly unattractive,\nbecause they happened to have visited it under unfavorable circumstances.\n\n\"Others, without considering what a country has previously produced, and\nthat at present the grain has not been planted, will declare unfertile\nthe soil which has been untilled for some months.\n\n\"On the other hand, if they visit a house on a sunny day, it would be\nimpossible for them to associate it with the idea of rain.\n\n\"It would be most difficult to make these people alter their judgment,\nprematurely formed, and, in spite of the most authoritative assertions\nand the most self-evident proofs, their initial idea will dominate all\nthose which one would like to instil into their minds.\n\n\"One moment would, however, suffice for reason to convince them that the\nvariations of atmosphere and the conditions of cultivation can modify\nthe aspect of a country, of a field, and of a house, to the extent of\ngiving them an appearance totally different from the one which they\nseemed to have.\n\n\"But he who judges by appearances never rejoices in the possession of\nthat faculty which may be called reason in imagination.\n\n\"This is a gift, developed by practical sense and which common sense\nhappily directs in right channels.\n\n\"Those who are endowed with this faculty can, with the help of reasoning,\nand by means of thought, build up a future reality based on a judgment\nwhose affirmation admits of no doubt.\n\n\"It is not a question of hypothesis, no matter how well-founded it is.\n\n\"Experience, in this case, is united with deduction to form a\npreconceived but certain idea.\n\n\"By cultivating practical sense, we shall escape the danger of\nidealization which, with people of unbalanced mentality, often sheds an\nartificial light upon the picture.\"\n\nThere is still another point to which Yoritomo calls our attention, in\norder to encourage us to cultivate the twin reasoning powers whose\nadvantages we are trying to commend in this chapter:\n\n\"Practical sense,\" says he, \"sometimes puts common sense apparently in\nthe wrong, while acting, however, without the inspiration of the latter.\n\n\"This happens when it is an advantage, for the perfect equilibrium of the\nprojects in question, that it should be maintained at the same pitch, in\norder that it may be understood by all.\n\n\"In the legendary days, snow the color of fire once fell on the\ninhabitants of a little village, who were all about to attend a\nreligious ceremony.\n\n\"One man alone, an old philosopher, had remained at home because, at the\ntime they were to leave, he suddenly fell ill.\n\n\"When his sufferings were relieved, he started out to join the others and\nfound them committing all sorts of follies.\n\n\"Two among them were reviling one another, each one claiming that he was\nthe only king.\n\n\"Some were weeping because they thought that they were changed\ninto beasts.\n\n\"Others were screaming, without rime or reason, now embracing each other,\nnow attacking one another furiously.\n\n\"Soon the wise man recognized that they had been affected by the fall of\nsnow, which had made them crazy, and he tried to speak to them in the\nlanguage of reason.\n\n\"But all these crazy people turned on him, crying out that he had just\nlost his reason and that he must be shut away.\n\n\"They undertook the task of taking him back to his home, but, as that was\nnot to be accomplished without rough usage, he assumed the part indicated\nby practical sense; this man of common sense feigned insanity, and from\nthe moment the insane people thought that he resembled them they let him\nalone and ceased to torment him.\n\n\"The philosopher profited by this fact to disarm their excitement, and,\nlittle by little, all the time indulging in a thousand eccentricities,\nwhich had no other object than to protect himself against them, he\ndemonstrated their aberration to them.\"\n\nCould not this story serve as an example to the majority of\ncontemporary critics?\n\nIs it not often necessary to appear to be denuded of common sense, to\nmake the voice of reason dominate?\n\nIn the fable of Yoritomo, his philosopher proved his profound knowledge\nof the human heart, while he put in practise the power of practical sense\nin apparent opposition, however, to common sense.\n\nWe said this at the opening of the chapter: practical sense and common\nsense are two very near relatives, but they are two and not one.\n\n\n\n\nLESSON X\n\nTHE MOST THOROUGH BUSINESS MAN\n\n\nOne of the principle advantages of common sense is that it protects the\nman who is gifted with it from hazardous enterprises, the risky character\nof which he scents.\n\nOnly to risk when possessing perfect knowledge of a subject is the sure\nmeans of never being drawn into a transaction by illusory hopes.\n\nAn exact conception of things is more indispensable to perfect success\nthan a thousand other more brilliant but less substantial gifts.\n\n\"However,\" says Yoritomo, \"in order to make success our own, it is\nnot sufficient to have the knowledge of things, one must above all\nknow oneself.\n\n\"On the great world-stage, each one occupies a place which at the start\nmay not always be in the first rank.\n\n\"Nevertheless, work, intelligence, directness of thought and, above all,\ncommon sense, can exert a positive influence on the future superiority of\nthe situation.\n\n\"Before everything else, it is indispensable that we should never delude\nourselves about the position which we occupy.\n\n\"To define it exactly, one should call to mind the wise adage which says:\nKnow thyself.\n\n\"But this knowledge is rare.\n\n\"Presumptuous persons readily imagine that they attract the eyes of every\none, even if they be in the last rank.\n\n\"Timid persons will hide themselves behind others and, notwithstanding,\nthey are very much aggrieved not to be seen.\n\n\"Ambitious persons push away the troublesome ones, in order that they\nthemselves may get the first places.\n\n\"Lazy persons just let them do it.\n\n\"Irresolute persons hesitate before sitting down in vacant places and\nare consumed with regrets from the time they perceive that others,\nbetter prepared, take possession of them; the more so as they no longer\nget back their own, for, during their hesitation, another has seated,\nhimself there.\n\n\"Enthusiasts fight to reach the first rank, but are so fatigued by their\nviolent struggles that they fall, tired out, before they have attained\ntheir object.\n\n\"Obstinate people persist in coveting inaccessible places and spend\nstrength without results, which they might have employed more\njudiciously.\n\n\"People of common sense are the only ones who experience no nervous\ntension because of this struggle.\n\n\"They calculate their chances, compute the time, do not disturb\nthemselves uselessly, and never abandon their present position until they\nhave a firm grasp on the following place.\n\n\"They do not seek to occupy a rank which their knowledge would not permit\nthem to keep; they draw on that faculty with which they are gifted to\nlearn the science of true proportion.\n\n\"They do not meddle in endeavors to reform laws; they submit to them, by\nlearning how to adapt them to their needs, and respect them by seeking to\nsubordinate their opinion to the principle on which they are based.\n\n\"Persons who have no common sense are the only ones to revolt against the\nlaws of the country where they live.\n\n\"The wise man will recognize that they have been enacted to protect him\nand that to be opposed to their observance would be acting as an enemy\nto oneself.\"\n\nHowever, people will say, if laws are so impeccable in their right\nto authority, how is it that their interpretation leads so often\nto disputes?\n\nIt is easy to reply that lawsuits are rarely instituted by men of common\nsense; they leave this burden to people of evil intent, who imagine thus\nto make a doubtful cause triumph.\n\nIt must be conceded that this means succeeds at times with them, when\nthey are dealing with timid or irresolute persons; but those who have\ncontracted the habit of reasoning, and who never undertake anything\nwithout consulting common sense, will never allow themselves to be drawn\ninto the by-paths of sophistry.\n\nIf they are forced to enter there temporarily, in order to pursue the\nadversary, who has hidden himself there, they will leave these paths as\nsoon as necessity does not force them to remain there longer and with\ndelight regain the broad road of rectitude.\n\nA few pages further on we find a reflection which the Shogun, always\nfaithful to his principles of high morality, specially addresses to those\nwho make a profession of humility.\n\n\"Obedience,\" he says, \"ought to be considered as a means; but, for the\none who wishes to succeed, in no sense can it be honored as a virtue.\n\n\"If it be a question of submission to law, that is nothing else but the\nperformance of a strict duty; this is a kind of compact which the man\nof common sense concludes with society, to which he promises his\nsupport for the maintenance of a protection from which he will be the\nfirst to benefit.\n\n\"This obedience might be set down as selfishness were it not endorsed by\ncommon sense.\n\n\"There are people, it is true, who, even altho wishing to support their\nneighbor when called upon to do so by the law, seek to evade this duty if\nleft to themselves.\n\n\"These are pirates who have broken completely not only with the spirit of\nequity, but also with simple common sense.\n\n\"It is always foolish to set the example of insubordination, for, if it\nwere followed, it would not be long before general disorder would appear.\n\n\"Some men were sitting one day on the edge of an inlet and were trying\nwith a net to catch fish, whose playful movements the men were following\nthrough the limpid water.\n\n\"According to their character, their perseverance, their cleverness, and\nthe ingenuity of the means employed, they caught a proportionate number\nof fish; but those who caught the least had one or two.\n\n\"This success encouraged them, and they began again in good earnest,\neach one in his own way, when a stranger appeared; he was armed with a\nlong branch of a tree, which he plunged in the pond, touching the bottom\nand stirring up the mud, which, as it scattered, rose to the surface of\nthe water.\n\n\"The limpidity of the water was immediately changed; one could no longer\nsee the fish, and the fishermen decided to discontinue their sport.\n\n\"But the man only laughed at their discomfiture and, brandishing a large\nnet, he threw it in his turn, chaffing them at the patient cunning by\nwhich they had, he said, taken such a poor haul.\n\n\"He brought up some fish, it is true, but at each haul he was obliged to\nlose so much time in removing the impurities, the d\u00e9bris, and the weeds\nof all kinds from the net that very soon the fishermen had the\nsatisfaction of seeing him punished for his mean conduct.\n\n\"What he took was scarcely more than what the smartest among them had\ntaken, and his net, filthy from the mud, torn by the roots that he was\nunable to avoid, was soon good for nothing.\"\n\nMight it not be from this fable that we have taken the expression, \"to\nfish in troubled waters,\" of which without a doubt the good Yoritomo\nfurnished the origin many, many centuries ago?\n\nHis prophetic mind is unveiled again in the following advice that not a\nbusiness man of the twentieth century would reject.\n\n\"Common sense,\" he says, \"when it is a question of the relations of men\nas to what concerns business or society, ought to adopt the\ncharacteristic of that animal called the chameleon.\n\n\"His natural color is dull, but he has the gift of reflecting the color\nof the objects on which he rests.\n\n\"Near a leaf, he takes the tint of hope.\n\n\"On a lotus, he is glorified with the blue of the sky.\n\n\"Is this to say that his nature changes to the point of modifying his\nnatural color?\n\n\"No; he does not cease to possess that which recalls the color of the\nground, and the ephemeral color which he appropriates is only a\nsemblance, in order that he may be more easily mistaken for the objects\nthemselves.\n\n\"The man who boasts of possessing common sense, altho preserving his\npersonality, ought not to fail, if he wants to succeed, to reflect that\nof the person whom he wishes to aid him in succeeding.\"\n\nLet it not be understood for a moment, that we advise any one to act\ncontrary to the impulses of justice.\n\nBut cleverness is a part of common sense in business, and assimilation is\nessential to success.\n\nIt is not necessary to abandon one's convictions in order to\nreflect principles which, without contradicting them, give them a\nfavorable color.\n\nCommon sense can remain intact and be differently colored, according as\nit is applied to the arts, politics, or science.\n\nIt would not deserve its name if it did not know how to yield to\ncircumstances, in order to adorn the momentary caprice with flowers\nof reason.\n\nIn the primitive ages, common sense consisted in keeping oneself in a\nperpetual state of defense; attack was also at times prescribed, by\nvirtue of the principle that it is pernicious to allow one's rights to be\nimperiled.\n\nAttack was also at times a form of repression.\n\nIt was also a lesson in obedience and a reminder not to misunderstand\nindividual rights.\n\nIn later times, common sense served to make the advantages of harmony\nappreciated.\n\nIt directed the descendants of peoples exclusively warlike toward the\nsecret place where science unfolds itself to the gaze of the vulgar; then\nit taught them to provide for their existence by working.\n\nIt has demonstrated to them the necessity of reflection, by inciting\nthem to model their present course of life on the lessons which come\nfrom the past.\n\nIt has given them the means to evoke it easily and effectively.\n\nIt has injected into their veins the calmness which permits them to draw\njust conclusions and to adopt toward preceding reasonings the attitude\nof absolute neutrality, without which all former presentiments are\nmarred by error.\n\nEach epoch was, for common sense, an opportunity to manifest itself\ndifferently.\n\nAt the moment when poetry was highly honored, it would have been\nunreasonable to have ignored it, for the bards excited great enthusiasm\nby their songs which gave birth to heroes.\n\nAnd now, imbued with the principles which in his day might be taken to\nrepresent what we to-day call advanced ideas, Yoritomo continues:\n\n\"Common sense can, then, without renouncing its devotion to truth, take\nvarious forms or shades, for the truth of yesterday is not always the\ntruth of to-day.\n\n\"The gods of the past are considered simply as idols in our day and the\nvirtues of the distant past would be, at present, moral defects which\nwould prevent men from winning the battle of life, whose ideal is The\nBest for which all the faculties should strive.\"\n\nThe Shogun also touches lightly on a subject which, already discust in\nhis time, has become, in our day, a burning truth; it is a question of a\nfault, which in the world of practical life and in that of business can\ncause considerable injury to him who allows it to be implanted in him.\n\nWe refer to that tendency which has been adorned or rather branded\nsuccessively with the names of hypochondria, pessimism, and lastly\nneurasthenia, an appellation which comprises all kinds of nervous\ndiseases, the characteristic of which is incurable melancholy.\n\n\"There are people,\" he says, \"who are afflicted with a special\ncolor-blindness.\n\n\"Everything they look at assumes immediately to their eyes the most\nsomber hues.\n\n\"They see in a flower only the germ of dry-rot; the most ideal\nbeauty appears to them only like the negligible covering of some\nhideous skeleton.\n\n\"However, they hang on to this life which they do not cease to\ncalumniate, and people of common sense are rarely found who will try to\nreason with them from a common-sense standpoint:\n\n\"'Since life is so insupportable to you, why do you impose upon yourself\nthe obligation to struggle with it?\n\n\"'Only insane people try to prolong their sojourn in a place where they\nsuffer martyrdom.'\n\n\"It is true that when, perchance, this argument is placed before them,\nthey do not fail to reply by invoking the shame of desertion.\n\n\"'Well, is not then the interest of the struggle to which we are\nsubjected a sufficient attraction to keep us at our post?'\"\n\nAnd, always enamored with the doctrine, which we are now assiduously\nmaintaining, he concludes:\n\n\"Common sense is, at times, the unfolding of a magnificent force which\nincites us to attune our environment to actualities.\n\n\"One must not, however, fall into excess and draw a huge sword to pierce\nthe clouds, which obscure the sun.\n\n\"If struggle is praiseworthy when we have to face a real enemy, it\nbecomes worthy of scorn and laughter if we attack a puerile or imaginary\nadversary.\n\n\"But the number of people incapable of appreciating the true color of\nthings is not limited to those who enshroud them in black.\n\n\"There are others, on the contrary, who obstinately insist upon\nsurrounding them with a halo of sunlight only existing in their\nimagination.\n\n\"For such deluded people, obstacles seen from a distance take on the most\nattractive appearance; they would be readily disposed to enjoy them and\nonly consent to allow them a certain importance if they absolutely\nobstruct the way.\n\n\"But until the moment when impossibility confronts them, do they deny its\nexistence or underrate its importance by attributing a favorable\ninfluence to it.\n\n\"This propensity to see all in the ideal would be enviable if it did not\nwound common sense, which revenges itself by refusing to these\nimprovident people the help of the reasoning power necessary to sustain\nthem in the crisis of discouragement which brings about irresistibly the\nestablishment of error.\n\n\"These unbalanced people rarely experience success, for they are unable,\nas long as their blindness lasts, to mark out a line of serious conduct\nfor themselves.\n\n\"All projects built on the quicksands of false deductions will perish\nwithout even leaving behind them material sufficient to reconstruct them.\n\n\"It is impossible to combat strongly enough this tendency to\nself-delusion, which inclines us to become the prey of untruth, by\npreventing the birth of faith, based on preceding success.\n\n\"Sincere conviction, on the contrary, will lead us to refute strongly\nall the false arguments, which impede thought and would choke it in\norder to allow unadulterated pleasure to be installed on the ruins of\ncommon sense.\n\n\"The battle of life demands warriors and conquerors as well as critics,\nless brilliant, perhaps, but just as worthy of admiration, for their\nmission is equally important, altho infinitely more obscure.\n\n\"Whether he be a peasant tilling his field or a rich capitalist\nmanipulating his gold, he who works in order to satisfy the needs or\nluxury of his existence is a fighter whose hours are spent in occupations\nmore or less dangerous.\n\n\"From time to time, however, a cessation of hostilities is produced; such\nalways follows the appearance of common sense which, by giving to things\ntheir true proportions, causes the greater part of inequalities to\ndisappear.\n\n\"Finally, he who cultivates this virtue unostentatiously will always be\nprotected from the caprices of fortune; if he is poor, common sense will\nindicate to him the way to cease to be poor, and, if chance has given him\nbirth in opulence, the counsels of experience will demonstrate to him the\nfrailty of possessions that one has not acquired by personal effort.\"\n\nThis conclusion is strikingly true, for it is certain that prosperity\nattained by personal effort is less likely to fade away than an inherited\nfortune, whose owner can only understand the ordinary pleasure of a\npossession which he has not ardently desired.\n\nHe who is the maker of his own position is more able to maintain it; he\nknows the price of the efforts which he had to make in order to construct\nit, and, armed with common sense, he is as able to defend his treasure as\nto enjoy the sweet savor of a thing which he has desired, longed for, and\nwon by the force of his will and judgment, placed at the service of\ncircumstances and directed toward success.\n\n\n\n\nLESSON XI\n\nCOMMON SENSE AND SELF-CONTROL\n\n\n\"Where life manifests itself,\" says Yoritomo, \"antagonism always\nsprings up.\"\n\n\"In the eternal struggle between the individual and social soul, each of\nwhich, in its turn, is victorious or vanquished, a truce is declared only\nif self-control is allied to common sense, in order to maintain the\nequilibrium between individual sentiment, natural to each one of us, and\nthe ideas of mankind as a whole.\n\n\"All classes of society are subject to this law, and, from the proudest\nprince to the humblest peasant, every one is obliged to harmonize their\nsocial duties with their personal obligations.\n\n\"Those who understand how to imbibe thoroughly the lessons of common\nsense, never ignore the fact that morality is always closely related to\nself-interest.\n\n\"If each one of us would observe this rule individual happiness would not\nbe long in creating a harmony from which all men would benefit.\n\n\"One thing we should avoid, for the attainment of universal\ntranquility, and that is the perpetual conflict between individual and\nsocial interest.\n\n\"The day when each one of us can comprehend that he is a part of this\n'all,' which is called society, he will admit that sinning against\nsociety may be considered the same as sinning against oneself.\n\n\"Passing one day before an immense cabin, built of bamboo, which stood\nnear a rice-plantation, I perceived a man who hid himself from my view,\nwithout however being able to escape my notice altogether. I went\nresolutely to him, to ask him the explanation of his suspicious movement.\n\n\"After an unsuccessful attempt to escape, he resigned himself to allow me\nto approach him, and I understood the reason of his apprehension:\n\n\"He was carrying several pieces of bamboo which he had detached from the\nhouse. He wanted, he said, to make a little blaze because the dampness\nwas chilling him.\n\n\"Without replying to him, I led him by the hand to the place where the\nbranches taken away had left a large space, a kind of opening in the side\nof the house, through which a keen wind was rushing.\n\n\"'Look,' I said to him, 'the blaze that you are going to make will warm\nyou for a few minutes, but, during the whole night the cold wind will\nfreeze you--you and your companions.\n\n\"'In order to procure for yourself an agreeable but passing sensation you\nare going to inflict upon them continued sufferings, of which you can not\nescape your share.'\n\n\"The man hung his head and said: 'I had not thought of this; I was cold\nand I allowed myself to be tempted by the anticipated pleasure of warming\nmyself, even if only for a few minutes.'\n\n\"And, convinced by common sense, he repaired the harm which he had done,\nfirst by reason of selfishness, then by thoughtlessness, but, above all,\nby lack of self-control.\n\n\"To dominate oneself to the point of not allowing oneself to become the\nslave of miserable contingencies which appear as temptations to\nself-indulgence, and conceal from their pettiness the beauty of the\nconsistent action--this is only given to the chosen few and can only be\nunderstood by those who cultivate common sense.\"\n\nIs this to say that reasoning should be a school for abnegation.\n\nSuch a thought is far from our minds.\n\nNeither habitual abnegation nor modesty is among the militant virtues,\nand for this reason the critics ought often to relegate them to their\nproper place, which is the last, very close to defects to which they\nclosely approach and among whose ranks one must sometimes go in order to\ndiscover them.\n\nBut, apart from the question of a sterile abnegation, we must foresee\nthat it may be important not to overestimate one's individual interests,\nto the visible detriment of the general interest.\n\nThis is a fault common to all those who have not been initiated into the\npractise of self-control by means of reasoning based on solid premises.\n\nThey are ready to sacrifice very great interests, which do not seem to\nconcern them directly, for some immediate paltry gratification.\n\n\"They act,\" said the philosopher, \"like a peasant who should risk\nhis harvest in order to avoid paying the prince the rent which\nbelongs to him.\n\n\"Common sense teaches us that we should call to our assistance\nself-control, in order to repress the tendencies which tempt men to\nsacrifice the general interest to some personal and vehement desire.\n\n\"Rarely do these people find their advantage in separating themselves\nfrom the mass, and the prosperity of the greatest number is always the\ncradle of individual fortunes.\"\n\nLeaving questions of primary importance to come to the subtleties of\ndetail in which, he delights, Yoritomo speaks to us of self-control\nallied to common sense, extolling to us its good effects in practical\nquestions of our every-day life.\n\n\"We too often confound,\" said he, \"self-control and liberty.\n\n\"We are tempted to believe that a slave can not possess it, inasmuch as\nit is the special possession of all those to whom riches give a superior\nposition in the world.\n\n\"How profound is this error!\n\n\"The lowest slave can enjoy this liberty, which is worth all others:\nself-control, which confers intellectual independence more precious than\nthe most precious of possessions, whereas the most powerful prince may be\naltogether ignorant of this blessing.\n\n\"There are dependent souls who, for want of the necessary strength to\nescape from vassalage to the external impressions will always drag on,\nfeeble and opprest by the exactions of a mental servitude from which they\ncan not free themselves.\n\n\"Others rise proudly, ready to command circumstances, which they dominate\nwith all the power of their volition governed by reason.\n\n\"It is common sense which will guide them in this ascent by keeping them\nwithin the limits assigned to those things pertaining to reason and\nrectitude of mind.\n\n\"Before everything, it is well not to forget that this faculty invites\nthose who cultivate it to seek always for exact facts.\n\n\"Knowledge, in all its aspects is, then, a perfect educator for those who\ndo not wish to build on the flimsy foundation of approximate truth.\n\n\"In pronouncing the word knowledge, we do not wish to speak of abstract\nstudies which are only accessible to a small number; we wish to express\nthe thought of instruction embracing all things, even the most humble\nand ordinary.\n\n\"A man from the city was walking in the country one day, not far from a\nvast swamp.\n\n\"All around it were a few miserable huts, the shelter of some peasants\nwhose business it was to gather the reeds from the borders, weaving them\ninto large baskets to be sold afterward in the neighboring country.\n\n\"Little by little twilight descended, slowly enveloping all things in a\nmist of ashy gray, and vapors arose from afar over the stagnant water.\n\n\"The man from the city trembled, believing that he recognized fantoms in\nthis moving vapor; he sought to flee, but, unfamiliar with the locality,\nhe ran along the side of the swamp without finding the end of it.\n\n\"Exhausted from fatigue and trembling with fear, he resolved to knock at\none of the cabins.\n\n\"He was welcomed by a basket-maker, to whom he related his fright, adding\nthat he was unable to understand how this man found the courage to live\nin a place haunted in such a terrible way.\n\n\"The peasant smiled and explained to the man, whose intellectual culture\nwas, however, infinitely superior to his own, by what phenomenon of\nevaporation these mirages were produced.\n\n\"He demonstrated to him that these fantoms were only harmless vapors, and\nthe city man admired the knowledge which common sense had taught the\nignorant one.\"\n\nAnd Yoritomo concluded:\n\n\"This peasant gave there a proof of what self-control allied to common\nsense can do.\n\n\"Instead of allowing himself to be influenced by appearances, he confined\nhimself to reflection, and observation aided by attention led him to a\ndeduction resting on truth.\n\n\"The essential factor of control is cool-headedness, which permits of\nseeing things in their true light, and forbids us to gild them or to\ndarken them, according to our state of mind at the time.\"\n\nThe Shogun adds:\n\n\"Fear, hideous fear, is a sentiment unknown to those whose soul communes\nwith self-control and common sense.\n\n\"The first of these qualities will produce a fixt resolution tending to\ncalmness, at the same time that it makes a powerful appeal to\ncool-headedness, which permits of reflection.\n\n\"Fear is always the confession of a weakness which disavows struggle and\nwishes to ignore the name of adversary.\n\n\"Cool-headedness is the evanescent examination of forces, either physical\nor intellectual, with reference to supposed danger.\n\n\"Without self-control cool-headedness can not exist; but it only develops\ncompletely under the influence of common sense which dictates to it the\nreasons for its existence.\n\n\"Cool-headedness, by leaving us our liberty of thought, enlightens us\nundoubtedly on the nature of danger, at the same time that it suggests to\nus the way to avoid it, if it really exists.\n\n\"There can not be a question of fear for those who possess the faculties\nof which we have just spoken, for it is well known that, from the moment\nwhen the cause of fear is defined it ceases to exist; it becomes stupid\nillusion or a real enemy.\n\n\"In the one case, as in the other, it ought not to excite anxiety any\nlonger, but contempt or the desire to fight it.\n\n\"For those whose mind is not yet strong enough to resolve on one or other\nof these decisions it will be well to take up again the argument\nindicated in the preceding pages, and to say:\n\n\"Either the object of my fear really exists, and, in this case, I must\ndetermine its nature exactly, in order to use the proper means first to\ncombat it and then to conquer it.\n\n\"Or it is only an illusion, and I am going to seek actively for that\nwhich produces it, in order never again to fall into the error of which\nmy senses have just been the dupes.\"\n\nLooking over these manuscripts, so rich in valuable advice, we find once\nmore the following lines:\n\n\"Self-control and cool-headedness are above all necessary to aid in\ndissimulating impressions.\n\n\"It is very bad to allow one of the speakers in a dialog to read the mind\nof him who speaks to him like an open book.\n\n\"He whose thoughts are imprest vividly on the surface is always placed at\na glaring disadvantage.\n\n\"The thought of glorifying hypocrisy is far from our minds, for it has\nnothing to do with the attitude which we recommend.\n\n\"The hypocrite strives to assume emotions which he does not feel.\n\n\"The man gifted with cool-headedness is intent on never allowing them\nto be seen.\n\n\"It keeps his adversary in ignorance of the effect produced by his\nreasoning and allows him to take his chance, until the moment when, in\nspite of this feigned indifference, he reveals himself and permits his\nmind to be seen.\n\n\"Now, to know the designs of a rival, when he is ignorant of those that\nwe have conceived, is one of the essential factors of success.\n\n\"In every way, he who is informed about the projects of his adversary\nwalks preceded by a torch of light, while the adversary, if he can not\ndivine his opponent's plans, continues to fight in darkness.\"\n\nThe most elementary common sense counsels then cool-headedness\nwhen exchanging ideas, even when the discussion is of quite an\namicable nature.\n\nFrom this habit there will result a very praiseworthy propensity to\nexercise self-control, which is only a sort of superior cool-headedness.\n\nIt is also the cause of a noble pride, because it is more difficult to\nwin a victory over one's passions than to conquer ordinary enemies, and\nhe who, with the support of common sense, succeeds in ruling himself, can\ncalculate, without arrogance, the hour when he will reign over the minds\nof others.\n\n\n\n\nLESSON XII\n\nCOMMON SENSE DOES NOT EXCLUDE GREAT ASPIRATIONS\n\n\n\"A very common error,\" says Yoritomo, \"is that which consists in\nclassifying common sense among the amorphous virtues, only applicable to\nthings and to people whose fundamental principle is materiality.\n\n\"This is a calumny which is spread broadcast by fools who scatter their\nlives to the four winds of caprice and extravagance.\n\n\"Not only does common sense not exclude beauty, but it really aids in its\ninception and protects its growth by maintaining the reasons which\nproduced its appearance.\n\n\"Without it, the reign of the most admired things would be of short\nduration, granting that the want of logic had not prevented their\nproduction.\n\n\"What is there more commendable than the love of work, devotion to\nscience, ambition to succeed?\n\n\"Could all this exist if common sense did not intervene to permit the\ndevelopment of the deductions on which are based the resolutions that\ninspired in us these aspirations.\n\n\"But this is not all; without logic, which permits us to give them\nsolidity, the most serious resolutions would soon become nothing but\nvague projects, shattered as soon as formed.\n\n\"In common sense lies the cause and the object of things.\n\n\"It is common sense which makes us realize that difference that\nfew persons are willing to analyze, and which lies between\njudgment and opinion.\n\n\"We almost always succeed in readily confounding them, and from this\nmistake results a too-frequent cause of failures.\n\n\"Opinion is a conviction which is capable of modification.\n\n\"In addition to this, as it is based on mere indications and probability,\nit is rarely free from the personal element.\n\n\"Opinion depends upon the favorite inclination, upon the mood of the\nmoment, upon sundry considerations, which direct it almost always toward\nthe desired solution.\n\n\"Also it depends often on thoughtfulness or on the inexactness of the\ninitial representation, which we are pleased to disguise slightly at\nfirst, then little by little to color in accordance with our desires.\n\n\"Falsehood does not necessarily enter into this process of tricking\nthings out; it is, three-quarters of the time, the result of an illusion\nwhich we are prone to perpetuate within us.\n\n\"We are too often in the position of the three wise men who, while\nrummaging in an old sarcophagus, discovered a vase whose primitive\nfunction they were unable to determine with any certainty.\n\n\"One of them was a poet and an idealist.\n\n\"The second only prized positive things.\n\n\"The third belonged to the category of melancholy people.\n\n\"After a few days devoted to special research work, they met together\nagain in order to communicate to each other their different opinions\nabout the exhumed vase.\n\n\"'I have found the secret,' said the first.\n\n\"'I also,' affirmed the second.\n\n\"'I equally have found it,' replied the third.\n\n\"And each one based his opinion on preconceived notions which reflected\ntheir bent of mind:\n\n\"'This vase,' said the first, 'was intended to hold incense, which\nthey burned a that epoch, in the belief that the smoke dispelled the\nevil spirits.'\n\n\"'Nonsense!' cried out the second; 'this vase is a pot which at that time\nserved as a receptacle for keeping spices.'\n\n\"'Not so!' insisted the third, 'it is an urn of antiquated design used\nfor receiving tears; that is all.'\n\n\"These three serious men were certainly sincere in giving explanations\nwhich each one of them declared decisive. They exprest opinions which\nthey believed implicitly and which their respective natures directed\nirresistibly toward their peculiar bents of mind.\n\n\"Judgment, in order to be free from all which is not common sense, ought\nthen to put aside all personal predilections, all desire to form a\nconclusion to humor our inclinations.\n\n\"Absolute impartiality of judgment is one of the rarest gifts and at the\nsame time is the noblest quality which we can possess.\"\n\nWe should then conclude, with the Shogun, that common sense aids in the\nproduction of noble aspirations, and is not concerned only with that\nwhich relates to materiality, as so many people would have us understand.\n\nThe Nippon philosopher teaches us also the part which he assigns to the\nhabitual practise of goodness.\n\n\"We are too easily persuaded,\" he says, \"that goodness, like beauty, is a\ngift of birth.\n\n\"It is time to destroy an error rooted in our minds for too many\ncenturies.\n\n\"Goodness is acquired by reasoning and logic, as are so many other\nqualities, and it is common sense which governs its formation.\n\n\"Have we ever reflected over the sum total of annoyances that people, who\nare essentially wicked, add every day to those imposed upon them by\ncircumstances?\n\n\"Are we capable of appreciating the joys of life when impatience makes\nthe nerves vibrate or when anger brandishes its torch in the bends and\nturns of the brain?\n\n\"People who lack goodness are the first to be punished for their defect.\nSerenity is unknown to them and they live in perpetual agitation, caused\nby the irritation which they experience on the slightest provocation.\"\n\nCommon sense indicates then in an irrefutable way that there is every\nadvantage in being good.\n\nAnd Yoritomo proves it to us, by using his favorite syllogism:\n\n\"Happiness,\" he says, \"is above all a combination of harmony and absence\nof sorrow.\n\n\"Wickedness, by inspiring us with discontent and anger, disturbs\nthis harmony.\n\n\"We must, therefore, banish wickedness, that we may cultivate goodness,\nwhich is the creator of harmony.\"\n\nContinuing still further the same argument, he adds:\n\n\"Common sense would have the tendency even to make us promise to be good,\nso as to satisfy our own egotism.\n\n\"Goodness creates smiles; to sow happiness around one, is a way of having\nneither eyes nor heart offended by the sight of people in tears; it is\nthe eliciting of an agreeable joy, whose rays will shed a golden light\nover our life; is it not more pleasing to hear the ring of laughter than\nto listen to painful sobs?\"\n\nSo, we should never lose an opportunity of being good and that without\nmental reservation.\n\nGratitude is not the possession of every soul and he who does good may\nexpect to receive ingratitude.\n\nHe will not suffer from it, if he has done good, not in the way a\ncreditor does who intends to come on the very day appointed to claim his\ndebt, but as a giver who fulfils his mission from which he is expecting\na personal satisfaction, without thinking of any acknowledgment for what\nhe has done.\n\nIf the debtor is filled with gratitude, the joy of being good is that\nmuch increased.\n\nThere is a species of common sense of a particularly noble quality that\nis called moral sense and which the Shogun defines thus:\n\n\"The moral sense is the common sense of the soul; it is the superior\npower of reasoning which stands before us that we may be prevented from\npassively following our instincts; it is by its assistance that we\nsucceed without too much difficulty in climbing the steep paths of duty.\n\n\"This sense discerns an important quality, which puts us on our guard\nagainst the danger of certain theories, whose brilliancy might seduce us.\n\n\"It is the moral sense which indicates to us the point of delimitation\nseparating legitimate concessions from forbidden license.\n\n\"It allows us to go as far as the dangerous place where the understanding\nwith conscience might become compromised and, by reasoning, proves to us\nthat there would be serious danger in proceeding further.\n\n\"It is the moral sense which distinguishes civilized man from the brute;\nit is the regulator of the movements of the soul and the faithful\nindicator of the actions which depend on it.\"\n\nWe must really pity those who are deprived of moral sense for they are\nthe prey of all the impulses created in them by the brute-nature, which\nsleeps in the depths of each human creature.\n\nThe man whose moral sense is developed will live at peace with himself,\nfor he will only know the evil of doubt when he realizes the satisfaction\nof having conquered it.\n\nMoral sense, like common sense, is formed by reasoning and is fostered by\nthe practise of constant application.\n\nIt is the property of those who avoid evil, as others avoid the spatter\nof mud, through horror of the stains which result from it.\n\nThose who do not have this apprehension flounder about, cover themselves\nwith mud, sink in it and finally are swallowed up.\n\nYoritomo again takes up the defense of common sense, with reference\nto the arts.\n\n\"Can one imagine,\" he says, \"a painter conceiving a picture and grouping\nhis figures in such a way as to violate the rules of common sense?\n\n\"We should be doomed, if this were true, to see men as tall as oak-trees\nand houses resembling children's toy constructions, placed without\nreference to equilibrium among green or pink animals, whose legs had\nqueer shapes.\n\n\"Madmen represent nature thus, which seems to them outlined in\nstrange forms.\n\n\"But people of common sense reproduce things just as sound judgment\nconceives of them; if they throw around them at times the halo of beauty\nwhich seems exaggerated, let us not decry them.\n\n\"Beauty exists everywhere; it dwells in the most humble objects, makes\nall around us resplendent and, if we refuse to see it, we are blinded by\nan unjust prejudice, or our minds are not open to the faculty of\ncontemplation.\n\n\"It is revealed above all to those who cultivate common sense and reject\nthe sophistries of untruth that they may surround themselves with truth.\n\n\"Such people scorn trivial casualties; they adopt an immutable\nrule, reasoning, which permits them to deduce, to judge, and\nafterward to produce.\n\n\"All beautiful creations are derived from this source.\n\n\"The most admirable inventions would never have been known if common\nsense had not helped them to be produced, strengthening those who\nconceived them by the support of logic, which demonstrated to them the\ntruth of their presumptions.\n\n\"Authority follows, based on the experience which, by maintaining the\neffect of judgment, has armed them with the strength of the mind, the\ntrue glory of peaceful conquerors.\"\n\nWould one not say that the Shogun, in writing these lines, foresaw the\nmagnificent efforts which we are witnessing each day and that from the\ndepths of time he caught a glimpse of these brave conquerors of the\nair and of space, whose great deeds, seeming at times the result of a\ncrazy temerity, are in reality only homage rendered to common sense,\nwhich has permitted them to calculate the value of their initiative\nwithout mistake?\n\nAnd one can not be denied the pleasure of entering once more into close\ncommunion of thought with the old philosopher when he says:\n\n\"Enthusiasm is of crystal but common sense is of brass.\"","title":"Common sense, how to exercise it","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":31360}