ent of suspicion, strategy, and deceit
was inevitable. The most suspicious men, other things being equal,
would be the victors; they, with their families, would survive and
thus determine the nature of the social order. The more than two
hundred and fifty clans and "kuni," "clan territory," into which the
land was divided, kept up perpetual training in the arts of intrigue
and subtlety which are inevitably accompanied by suspicion.

Modern manifestations of this characteristic are frequent. Not a
cabinet is formed, but the question of its make-up is discussed from
the clannish standpoint. Even though it is now thirty years since the
centralizing policy was entered upon and clan distinctions were
effectually broken down, yet clan suspicion and jealousy is not dead.

The foreigner is impressed by the constant need of care in
conversation, lest he be thought to mean something more or other than
he says. When we have occasion to criticise anything in the Japanese,
we have found by experience that much more is inferred than is said.
Shortly after my arrival in Japan I was advised by one who had been in
the land many years to be careful in correcting a domestic or any
other person sustaining any relation to myself, to say not more than
one-tenth of what I meant, for the other nine-tenths would be
inferred. Direct and perfectly frank criticism and suggestion, such as
prevail among Anglo-Americans at least, seem to be rare among the
Japanese.

In closing, it is in order to note once again that the emotional
characteristics considered in this chapter, although customarily
thought to be deep-seated traits of race nature, are, nevertheless,
shown to be dependent on the character of the social order. Change the
order, and in due season corresponding changes occur in the national
character, a fact which would be impossible were that character
inherent and essential, passed on from generation to generation by the
single fact of biological heredity.

XI

JEALOUSY--REVENGE--HUMANE FEELINGS

According to the teachings of Confucius, jealousy is one of the seven
just grounds on which a woman may be divorced. In the "Greater
Learning for Women,"[M] occur the following words: "Let her never even
dream of jealousy. If her husband be dissolute, she must expostulate
with him, but never either render her countenance frightful or her
accents repulsive, which can only result in completely alienating her
husband from her, and makin