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the proof of the authenticity of the record, for who would have gone out of his way to invent a story apparently so ridiculous and incredible. The acts of the gods are not to be explained by ordinary principles. Man’s intelligence is limited, and there are many things which transcend it.
If we reflect that although Izanagi had to kindle a light when he visited the nether world, because of the darkness which reigned there, while the opposite was the case in the upper world, although the sun-goddess had not yet come into being, it will be clear that was some cause, which we cannot explain, for the darkness of the nether world, and for light existing on the earth. Some principle was evidently at work with which we are unacquainted. After the birth of the sun-goddess, no light could be obtained except from her brightness,[1] as she had been appointed to illuminate the space between heaven and earth, which accounts for night covering the earth when she went into the cave.
Many other miracles occurred in the age of the gods, the truth of which was not disputed until men were taught by Chinese philosophy to analyse the acts of the gods by the aid of their own feeble intelligence. The reason assigned for disbelieving in miracles is that they cannot be explained, but in fact although the age of the gods has passed away, wondrous miracles surround us on all sides. For instance, is the earth suspended in space or does it rest upon something else? It if be said that the earth rests upon something else, then what is it that supports that something else? According to one Chinese theory the earth is a globe, suspended in space with the heavens revolving round it. But even if we suppose the heavens to be full of air, no ordinary principles will account for the land and sea being suspended in space without moving. The explanation offered is as miraculous as the supposition pre-
- ↑ The parallel between the creation of light and the vegetable world before the sun, as given in the I. Chapter of Genesis and the Japanese account is very curious; it might be useful to those who think that the Japanese are the descendants of the lost tribes.
