hly
generalized; yet these are all pure Japanese words, and reveal the
development of the Japanese mind before it was in the least influenced
by Chinese thought. Evidently it will not do to assert the entire lack
of the power of generalization to the Japanese mind.

Still further evidence proving Japanese possession of the higher
mental faculties may be found in the wide prevalence and use of the
most highly generalized philosophical terms. Consider for instance,
"Ri" and "Ki," "In" and "Yo." No complete translation can be found for
them in English; "Ri" and "Ki" may be best translated as the rational
and the formative principles in the universe, while "In" and "Yo"
signify the active and the passive, the male and the female, the light
and the darkness; in a word, the poles of a positive and negative. It
is true that these terms are of Chinese origin as well as the thoughts
themselves, but they are to-day in universal use in Japan. Similar
abstract terms of Buddhistic origin are the possession of the common
people.

Of course the possession of these Chinese terms is not offered as
evidence of independent generalizing ability. But wide use proves
conclusively the possession of the higher mental faculties, for,
without such faculties, the above terms would be incomprehensible to
the people and would find no place in common speech. We must be
careful not to give too much weight to the foreign origin of these
terms. Chinese is to Japanese what Latin and Greek are to modern
European languages. The fact that a term is of Chinese origin proves
nothing as to the nature of the modern Japanese mind. The developing
Japanese civilization demanded new terms for her new instruments and
increasing concepts. These for over fifteen centuries have been
borrowed from, or constructed out of, Chinese in the same way that all
our modern scientific terms are constructed out of Latin and Greek. It
is doubtful if any of the Chinese terms, even those borrowed bodily,
have in Japan the same significance as in China. If this is true, then
the originating feature of Japanese power of generalization becomes
manifest.

Indeed from this standpoint, the fact that the Japanese have made such
extensive use of the Chinese language shows the degree to which the
Japanese mind has outgrown its primitive development, demanding new
terms for the expression of its expanding life. But mental growth
implies energy of acquisition. The adoption of Chinese terms