to slip away by himself into the Temple Oratory, and there, before the image of Kokuzo Bosatsu, to offer a prayer that he might grow up to be a good priest worthy of the name; and as he went on with his studies in the quiet seclusion of that country monastery, he felt the premonitory symptoms of his great vocation. He realized that the Buddhism of the Kamakura period had departed very widely from the primitive Buddhism of its Indian Founder; he saw that it was hopelessly divided by sects, schisms, and varieties of contradictory doctrines, and that, being so, it was necessarily incapable of doing the good in the world which its Founder had meant it to accomplish. The condition of Japan was miserable; the Buddhist sects, whether of Kyoto, Nara, or Kamakura, were powerless to resist the growing evils: a Buddhism purified, vivified, united, might and would save Japan from dangers external and internal. He determined to be the man who should accomplish this great design.

Those who know the precociousness of youthful Japanese will not be surprised at Nichiren's forming this plan before he was twenty years of age. The idea seems to have been suggested to him by the reading of that very remarkable book, the "Saddharmapundarika Sutra."

[paragraph continues] Having read it and interpreted it to himself, he became quite confident of his mission, and with characteristic energy set himself to work to prepare for executing it. He left the quiet Temple of Kyosumidera, and for several years set himself to work to travel throughout Japan and make a study of every existing form of Buddhism. When he had thus finished his survey of the whole field, he felt himself in a position to formulate his own views on religion and national life. Nichiren has often been described, by those who knew him only superficially, as a mere dreamer and fanatic. A more careful study reveals him as a man of very decided opinions, and extremely outspoken. But he was always able to give a reason for his conclusions, and those reasons were sane and cogent; and in putting his views into practice he constantly showed that if he dared to upbraid error in severe tones, his courage came from reflection and not from mere impulse.

For more than twenty years Nichiren devoted himself with great diligence to the study of Japanese Buddhism. He has told us in one of his letters that from twelve to thirty-two he gave himself up to the comparative study of all Buddhist sects in his country--Kusha, Jojitsu, Ritsu (Vinaya), Hosso, Sanron, Kegon, Shingon, and the Tendai-Hokke, which was the official designation of the sect founded by Dengyo Daishi at Hieizan. To these he