e men, who were entirely out of sight, were, in very many cases,
the real holders of the power which was supposed to be exercised by
the daimyo. The lord was often a "great name" and nothing more. That
this state of affairs was always attended with evil results is by no
means the contention of these pages. Not infrequently the people were
saved by it from the incompetence and ignorance and selfishness of
hereditary rulers. Indeed, this system of "yumei-mujitsu" government
was one of the devices whereby the inherent evils of hereditary rulers
were more or less obviated. It may be questioned, however, whether the
device did not in the long run cost more than it gained. Did it not
serve to maintain, if not actually to produce, a system of
dissimulation and deception which could but injure the national
character? It certainly could not stimulate the straightforward
frankness and outspoken directness and honesty so essential to the
well-being of the human race.

Although "yumei-mujitsu" government is now practically extinct in
Japan, yet in the social structure it still survives.

The Japanese family is a maze of "nominality." Full-grown young men
and women are adopted as sons and daughters, in order to maintain the
family line and name.

A son is not a legal son unless he is so registered, while an
illegitimate child is recognized as a true son if so registered. A man
may be the legal son of his grandmother, or of his sister, if so
registered. Although a family may have no children, it does not die
out unless there has been a failure to adopt a son or daughter, and an
extinct family may be revived by the legal appointment of someone to
take the family name and worship at the family shrine. The family
pedigree, therefore, does not describe the actual ancestry, but only
the nominal, the fictitious. There is no deception in this. It is a
well-recognized custom of Old Japan. Its origin, moreover, is not
difficult to explain. Nor is this kind of family peculiar to Japan. It
is none the less a capital illustration of the "yumei-mujitsu"
characteristic permeating the feudal civilization, and still exerting
a powerful influence. Even Christians are not free from "nominalism,"
as we have frequently found in our missionary work.

A case in mind is of an evangelist employed by our mission station. He
was to receive a definite proportion of his salary from the church for
which he worked and the rest from the station. On inquiry I l