676 THE JAPANESE NATION. 



years for a boy to become sufficiently familiar with the Chinese charac- 

 ters to use them readily ; thus the time given to real intellectual train- 

 ing is greatly lessened. 



An American started the first newspaper in 1871 with 1,200 charac- 

 ters, but was compelled to increase them, and now uses 12,000. In the 

 printing office each compositor sits at the desk with the letters of 

 the Japanese alphabet within his reach, while boys bring the Chinese 

 characters from their numerous places for him to set up. 



The Japanese literature is rich in works of fiction, fables, legends, 

 and poetry. Many of the legends are very beautiful, full of poetic 

 feeling and fancy, and as they are generally written in Japanese are 

 largely read by the common people. 



As science and arts are unknown to the Asiatics, their language is 

 insufficient for the requirements of the highest intellectual and scien 

 tific culture. 



RELIGION. 



The earliest religion of every savage tribe is the expression of fear 

 and dread of the unknown and a desire to propitiate the mysteries, 

 both evil and good, and is always largely affected by the environment. 

 In Japan earthquakes average two a month, and one hundred in one 

 revolution of the moon are not uncommon. Almost every mountain 

 top is or has been a crater from which the molten lava has flowed 

 down, destroying many a village and town. Floods of rain on the 

 mountains often cause great landslides and inundations, destroying 

 towns and cities, while once or twice a year the typhoon, most dreadful 

 in its ravages, must be expected. These all affect the mind and influ- 

 ence the religious feeling. The God of Thunder, of the Earthquake, 

 and the Dragon all men worshiped. The earthly representative of 

 the Deity was the Mikado, whom all men reverenced, feared, and 

 obeyed. In the family ancestral worship — reverence and obedience of 

 the child to the father during his lifetime — was taught. This principle 

 has been unfavorable to the development of the race, as it involves the 

 sacrifice of independence, free will> and personality. 



The mythology of Japan abounds with beautiful, romantic, and weird 

 stories, the foundation of much of its art and poetry. As the intellec- 

 tual progress of the people, their art and literature were developed, 

 the need of a religion higher and more spiritual than Shintoism — as 

 their old religion was called — was felt. This was found in Buddhism, 

 which came from China in the sixth century. It taught patience, cour- 

 age, charity, the subjugation of the animal nature and passions, the 

 purification and elevation of the moral nature in the struggle for higher 

 life. It regarded the present as only the highest of a series of trans- 

 formations through which the soul must r>ass to reach Nirvana, the 

 eternal jjeace ; but if the discipline of this life should be ineffectual to 

 elevate the man, the soul must return to a lower animal life, once more 

 to pass by ascending incarnations to its final absorption in Buddha. 



