room of the house. Family life is, therefore, much less
broken in upon by the industrial necessities of civilization, and
there are accordingly more opportunities for the manifestation of the
father's affection for the children. Furthermore, the laboring-people
in Japan live much on the street, and it is a common thing to see the
father caring for children. While I have seldom seen a father with an
infant tied to his back, I have frequently seen them with their infant
sons tucked into their bosoms, an interesting sight. This custom gives
a vivid impression of parental affection. But, comparing the middle
classes of Japan and the West, it is safe to say that, as a whole, the
Western father has more to do by far in the care and education of the
children than the Japanese father, and that there is no less of
fondling and playing with children. If we may judge the degree of
affection by the signs of its demonstrations, we must pronounce the
Occidental, with his habits of kissing and embracing, as far and away
more affectionate than his Oriental cousin. While the Occidental may
not make so much of an occasion of the advent of a son as does the
Oriental, he continues to remember the birthdays of all his children
with joy and celebrations, as the Oriental does not. Although the
Japanese invariably say, when asked about it, that they celebrate
their children's birthdays, the uniform experience of the foreigner
is that birthday celebrations play a very insignificant part in the
joys and the social life of the home.

It is not difficult to understand why, apart from the question of
affection, the Japanese should manifest special joy on the advent of
sons, and particularly of a first son. The Oriental system of
ancestral worship, with the consequent need, both religious and
political, of maintaining the family line, is quite enough to account
for all the congratulatory ceremonies customary on the birth of sons.
The fact that special joy is felt and manifested on the birth of sons,
and less on the birth of daughters, clearly shows that the dominant
conceptions of the social order have an important place in determining
even so fundamental a trait as affection for offspring.

Affection for children is, however, not limited to the day of their
birth or the period of their infancy. In judging of the relative
possession by different races of affection for children, we must ask
how the children are treated during all their succeeding y