The dynasty of the imperial rulers is the oldest in the world. No other family line extends so far back into the remote ages as the nameless family of mikados. Disdaining to have a family name, claiming descent, not from mortals, but from the heavenly gods, the imperial house of the Kingdom of the Rising Sun occupies a throne which no plebian has ever attempted to usurp.
Throughout all the vicissitudes of the imperial line, in plentitude of power or abasement of poverty, its members deposed or set up at the pleasure of the upstart or political robber, the throne itself has remained unshaken. Unclean hands have not been laid upon the ark itself. As in the procession of life on the globe the individual perishes, the species lives on, so, though individual mikados have been dethroned, insulted or exiled, the prestige of the line has never swerved.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
