THE FRUITS OF EDUCATION 325 



this great freedom possible are not in some danger of 

 being abused. Most cultivated Americans would 

 probably answer this question by saying that it is 

 worth risking something in the way of abuse of the 

 freedom of women to preserve the good spirit of 

 equality that has made this possible, and they would 

 probably hold this opinion the more strongly if 

 they had seen the discouraging limitations of rea- 

 sonable liberty that exist in the continent of Europe. 

 There is, however, a different point of view in regard 

 to the attitude of occidental man toward woman, a 

 view which has been so well pictured by Lafcadio 

 Hearn in his essay on "The Eternal Feminine," 

 and which cannot be ignored. It appears that in 

 Japan many impressions of life have emerged from 

 ancient habits, ethics, and beliefs, in some cases 

 singularly opposed to those of the Anglo-Saxon race. 

 The attitude of the oriental and of the occidental is 

 in nothing more different than in the way in which 

 the men think of women. The reverence, the ten- 

 derness, the exaggerated symbolism expressed in 

 poems and novels [of the West, is unintelligible, it 

 seems, to the Japanese. Filial piety is the moral 

 cement of his social system, and it appears to him 

 wholly unnatural to love his wife and child as much 

 or more than his parents. "To the young Japanese 

 marriage appears a simple, national duty, for the 

 due performance of which his parents will make all 

 necessary arrangements at the proper time." The 

 Scripture text, "For this cause shall a man cleave 



