By far the most interesting morsel of intelligence received this
week comes to us from Yeddo, Japan. We had hardly expected so sudden a confirmation of our theory that the Mikado as semi- divine could do anything, even alter a creed ; but it is stated that -he has really determined to promulgate a new religion, which will be "enlightened, simple, and adapted to common-sense," and to which, therefore, all classes "will be compelled to conform." The creed is to be drawn up "after careful consultation with the ex- ponents of each sect," but we are not told whether "each sect" includes the Christians, or is confined to the indigenous religions -of the Empire. There is little doubt, however, that the "simple, enlightened, and common-sense creed" will be found to have been affected by intercourse with the foreigner, while it may be an exceedingly original affair. Imagine a human being with the power, by a stroke of his pen, of making the Sermon on the Mount the accepted creed of thirty millions, or of establishing Theism in its Western form among a population of Buddhists, or even of converting a whole population to nominal Christianity. Is it quite too credulous to think that no man with that awful power in his hands could be left wholly unguided ?
