al in Japan. It is
doubtless explained by the custom, practiced from infancy, not only of
public bathing, but also of living together so unreservedly. The heat
of the summer and the nature of Japanese clothing, so easily thrown
off, has accustomed them to the greater or less exposure of the
person. All these customs have prevented the development of a sense of
modesty corresponding to that which has developed in the West. Whether
this familiarity of the sexes is conducive to purity of life or not,
is a totally different question, on which I do not here enter.

In this connection I can do no better than quote from a popular, and
in many respects deservedly popular, writer on Japan. Says Mr. Hearn,
"There is little privacy of any sort in Japan. Among the people,
indeed, what we term privacy in the Occident does not exist. There are
only walls of paper dividing the lives of men; there are only sliding
screens instead of doors; there are neither locks nor bolts to be used
by day; and whenever the weather permits, the fronts and perhaps even
the sides of the houses are literally removed, and its interior widely
opened to the air, the light, and the public gaze. Within a hotel or
even a common dwelling house, nobody knocks before entering your room;
there is nothing to knock at except a shoji or a fusuma, which cannot
be knocked at without being broken. And in this world of paper walls
and sunshine, nobody is afraid or ashamed of fellow-man or
fellow-woman. Whatever is done is done after a fashion in public. Your
personal habits, your idiosyncrasies (if you have any), your foibles,
your likes and dislikes, your loves and your hates must be known to
everybody. Neither vices nor virtues can be hidden; there is
absolutely nowhere to hide them.... There has never been, for the
common millions at least, even the idea of living unobserved." The
Japanese language has no term for "privacy," nor is it easy to convey
the idea to one who does not know the English word. They lack the term
and the clear idea because they lack the practice.

These facts prove conclusively that the Japanese individual is still a
gregarious being, and this fact throws light on the moral life of the
people. It follows of necessity that the individual will conform
somewhat more closely to the moral standards of the community, than a
man living in a strong segregarious community.

The converse of this principle is that in a community whose
individuals are la