ion held by woman in her relations to man, her lack of legal
rights,[D] and her menial position, justify the assertion that there
was much room for improvement.

These three conspicuous features of the older life in Japan help us to
reach a clear conception as to what constitutes progress. We may say
that true progress consists in that continuous, though slow,
transformation of the structure of society which, while securing its
more thorough organization, brings to each individual the opportunity
of a larger, richer, and fuller life, a life which increasingly calls
forth his latent powers and capacities. In other words, progress is a
growing organization of society, accompanied by a growing liberty of
the individual resulting in richness and fullness of life. It is not
primarily a question of unreflecting happiness, but a question of the
wide development of manhood and womanhood. Both men and women have as
yet unmeasured latent capacities, which demand a certain liberty,
accompanied by responsibilities and cares, in order for their
development. Intellectual education and a wide horizon are likewise
essential to the production of such manhood and womanhood. In the long
run this is seen to bring a deeper and a more lasting happiness than
was possible to the undeveloped man or woman.

The question of progress is confused and put on a wrong footing when
the consciousness of happiness or unhappiness, is made the primary
test. The happiness of the child is quite apart from that of the
adult. Regardless of distressing circumstances, the child is able to
laugh and play, and this because he is a child; a child in his
ignorance of actual life, and in his inability to perceive the true
conditions in which he lives. Not otherwise, I take it, was the
happiness of the vast majority in Old Japan. Theirs was the happiness
of ignorance and simple, undeveloped lives. Accustomed to tyranny,
they did not think of rebellion against it. Familiar with brutality
and suffering, they felt nothing of its shame and inhumanity. The
sight of decapitated bodies, the torture of criminals, the despotism
of husbands, the cringing obedience of the ruled, the haughtiness of
the rulers, the life of hard toil and narrow outlook, were all so
usual that no thought of escape from such an order of society ever
suggested itself to those who endured it.

From time to time wise and just rulers did indeed strive to introduce
principles of righteousness into thei