Japan and the Japanese

90 JAPAN. A. D. 15771586.
and especially upon this little portion of the Bock committed to your care
I have received from the hand of the father-visitor the reliquary with u hi. i
your Holiness honored me, and I have placed it on my head with much
respect. I have no words in which to express the gratitude with which I ara
penetrated for a gift so precious. I will add no more, as the father-visitoi
and my ambassador will more fully inform your Holiness as to all thai
regards my person and my realm. I truly adore you, most holy Father, and I
write this to you trembling with respectful fear. The llth day of January,
in the year of our Lord 1682. FRANCIS, King of Bungo,
prostrate at the foot of your Holiness."
The reading of this and of the other letters, translated into Italian
was followed by a Discourse on Obedience, pronounced, in the namo
of the princes and the ambassadors, by Father Gaspard Gonzales,
a model of rhetorical elegance and comprehensive brevity what-
ever may be thought of its ethical or theological doctrines which
some of the long-winded speakers of the present day, both lay and
clerical, would do well to imitate. We give, as a specimen, a pas-
sage from the beginning :
" Nature has separated Japan from the countries in which we now are, by
such an extent of land and sea, that, before the present age, there were very
few persons who had any knowledge of it ; and even now there are those who
find it difficult to believe the accounts of it which we give. It is certain,
nevertheless, most holy Father, that there are several Japanese islands, of a
vast extent, and in these islands numerous fine cities, the inhabitants of
which have a keen understanding, noble and courageous hearts, and obliging
dispositions, politeness of manners, and inclinations disposed towards that
which is good. Those who have known them have decidedly preferred them
to all the other people of Asia, and it is cnly their lack of the true religion
which prevents them from competing with the nations of Europe.
" For some years past this religion has been preached to them, under the
authority of the holy see, by apostolical missionaries. Its commencements
were small, as in the case of the primitive church ; but God having given
his blessing to this evangelical seed, it took root in the hearts of the nobles,
ind of late, under the pontificate of your Holiness, it has been received by
he greatest lords, the princes and kings of Japan. This, most holy Father,
mglit to console you, for many reasons ; but principally because, laboring as
you do with nn indefatigable zeal and vigor to reestablish a religion, shaken
and almost destroyed by the new heresies here in Europe, you see it take root
and make great progress in the most distant country of the world.
" Hitherto your Holiness has heard, and with great pleasure, of the abun
dant fruits borne by this vine newly planted, with so much labor, at the
extremities of the earth. Now you may see, touch, taste them, in this augusl