They were an embodiment of what was considered as an end of all learning, and were thus aliving example of that discipline of disciplines,self-control,which was universally required of samurai.The discipline of fortitude on the one hand, inculcating endurance without a groan, and the teaching of politeness on the other, requiring us not to mar the pleasure or serenity of another by manifestations of our own sorrow or pain, combined to engendera stoical turn of mind, and eventually to confirm it into a national trait of apparent stoicism. I say apparent stoicism, because I do not believe that true stoicism can ever become the characteristic of a whole nation, and also because some of our national manners and customs may seem to a foreign observer hardhearted. Yet we are really as susceptible to tender emotion as any race under the sky.
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