the individual have been emphasized; Spencer and Mill and
Huxley have been widely read by the educated classes.[BR]

Furthermore, freedom and ease of travel, and liberty to change one's
residence at will, and thus the ability to escape unpleasant
restraints, have not a little to do with this collapse in morality.
Tens of thousands of students in the higher schools are away from
their homes and are entirely without the steadying support that home
gives. Then, too, there is a wealth among the common people that was,
never known in earlier times. Formerly the possession of means was
limited to a relatively small number of families. To-day we see
general prosperity, and a consequent tendency to luxury that was
unknown in any former period.

To be specific, let us note that in feudal times there were some 270
daimyo living in the utmost luxury. About 1,500,000 samurai were
dependent on them as retainers, while 30,000,000 people supported
these sons of luxury. In 1863 the farmers of Japan raised 30,000,000
koku of rice, and paid 22,000,000 of it to the government as taxes.
Taxed at the same rate to-day the farmers would have to pay
280,000,000 yen, whereas the actual payment made by them is only
38,000,000 yen. "The farmer's manner of life has radically changed. He
is now prosperous and comfortable, wearing silk where formerly he
could scarcely afford cotton, and eating rice almost daily, whereas
formerly he scarcely knew its taste."[BS]

It is stated by the _Japan Mail_ that whereas but "one person out of
ten was able thirty years ago to afford rice, the nine being content
to live from year's end to year's end on barley alone or barley mixed
with a modicum of rice, six persons to-day out of ten count it a
hardship if they cannot sit down to a square meal of rice daily....
Rice is no longer a luxury to the mass of the people, but has become a
necessity."

Financially, then, the farming and middle classes are incomparably
better off to-day than in olden times. The amount of ready money which
a man can earn has not a little to do with his morality. If his
uprightness depends entirely or chiefly on his lack of opportunity to
do wrong, he will be a moral man so long as he is desperately poor or
under strict control. But give him the chance to earn ready cash,
together with the freedom to live where he chooses, and to spend his
income as he pleases, and he is sure to develop various forms of
immorality.

I have made a larg