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216 ffONDA THE SAMUBA1.
patriotism of Honda was of rather a narrow sort.
They were a few of the not numerous, but devoted,
patriots in Yedo who felt that the only way to meet
the foreigner was to equal him in character, weapons,
and determination. None was more truly unselfish
and courageous than Ban. He hated the bakufu
with a righteous hatred because it had again and
again suppressed the truth which his relative dared to
publish. It had imprisoned upright men for no
other crime than for writing good books and making
maps. It was equal again to beheading noble
patriots who counted their life less than nothing for
love of truth. The philosophy of life to an edu-
cated Japanese is as noble as was that of the Stoic.
Show him his place in the line of duty, and he
holds himself and his life as but dirt in compari-
son to his ambition to fulfill his obligation.
An hour or more was spent in conversation, and
the party broke up, believing it to be best, under the
circumstances, to separate. Let us see how they
spent the following six months.
Ban, besides being present at every secret gathering
of patriots opposed to the bakufu, and eager at
every hazard to destroy
ancient monarchy, entered a fencing-school under
it and restore the Mikado to
one of the first masters of the art in Yedo. His
faith lay in the sword. He practiced every possible
sweep, cut and thrust, front and back, up and down,
forward and backward. In those days, of the nearly
two million people of the privileged classes, the men
that is, all the samurai habitually wore two