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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1051 



problem of the function of environment in 

 shaping American life. As we have seen 

 in this sketch, the geographer will not work 

 alone, the historian, sociologist and philos- 

 opher will take a hand. 



It's a long way from the primitive man 

 to the differentiation of the white race, 

 from the white beginnings to Briton, 

 Anglia, Norway and Normandy, from 

 Anglia and England to California and 

 Puget Sound. Along this ancient and 

 devious path our ignorance of the inner 

 laws of human development is appalling. 

 We see man, and earth, something called 

 race, race continuity, one physical environ- 

 ment after another, human environments 

 with innumerable mixtures of blood, in 

 infinitely various compounds, in the grand 

 march of humanity to one world center 

 after another. The result, to carry out our 

 illustration still, is the Pacific coast man, 

 domestic, industrial, political, social, moral. 

 It will take cautious steps and many torches 

 to pick our way back along the road by 

 which he came. 



Let us take another example in emphasis 

 of the diiSeulties which beset us — an analy- 

 sis of the causes of Japanese character. 

 Mental alertness has been asserted to be 

 the chief trait of the Japanese. This must 

 have originated in accordance with biolog- 

 ical laws, in spontaneous variation, in mix- 

 ture of races, or in environment, or we 

 might add, by a combination of these. It 

 is tentatively held that however this qual- 

 ity arose, it has been preserved by environ- 

 ment: first, by insularity, giving familiar- 

 ity with the sea, saving from wars, inter- 

 mixtures and invasions, in distinction from 

 a continental land, like China; second, by 

 physical features, affording small areas of 

 cultivation, promoting industry, a land of 

 such richness as to give certainty of re- 

 ward, without drought or flood to destroy 

 the prudent as well as the thriftless. Third, 



there comes climate, following a supposed 

 law that the progressive lands are in the 

 cyclonic domain of the Temperate zone. 



This seems simple, interesting and sug- 

 gestive, but is it true? Is mental alertness 

 the chief trait in Japanese efficiency? 

 Droppers, sometime professor in the Uni- 

 versity of Tokyo, thinks the secret of suc- 

 cess is in the structure of society, devotion 

 to family life, or to tribe and nation, the 

 corpcfrate versus the individualistic.'^ 

 Dyer emphasizes community but denies 

 that the main ability is in imitation. Loy- 

 alty and intellectual ability are the basis 

 of achievement. Another authority marks 

 the Japanese as' sober, intelligent, endur- 

 ing, patient, industrious, polite, skilful, 

 ready to assimilate, not devoid of original 

 genius.^* Yet another says he is patient, 

 persistent, cheerful, versatile, quick-witted, 

 enterprising, original, imitative, progres- 

 sive, industrious, artistic, humorous, 

 cleanly, polite, honorable, brave, kind, 

 calm, self-contained.'^ Whether any good 

 human qualities have been left out of these 

 catalogues, we do not know, but we are at 

 least left in doubt as to what the main na- 

 tional trait is. 



But suppose it is mental alertness. 

 Would insularity make it or keep it ? Miss 

 Semple avers that insularity breeds con- 

 servatism, a quality that does not seem to 

 be indissolubly tied to alertness. Insu- 

 larity may give familiarity with the sea, 

 but perhaps not greater than is true of the 

 Dutch, who are not insular, and we do not 

 think of the Dutch as distinctively alert. 

 Insularity has not kept Japan free from 

 invasion, though there have been periods of 

 seclusion. And the modern Japanese are 



33 Garrett Droppers, ' ' The Secret of Japanese 

 Success," Jour. Bace Devel., II., 424. 



34, V. Dingelstedt, ' ' fitiUng Nations, ' ' Scot. 

 Geog. Mag., 27, 305. 



35 Writer in New Inter. Ency., Art. ' ' Japan, ' ' 

 335. 



