ize the importance to popular thought of monistic conceptions.
But possessing these ideas, and being now in contact with aggressive
Christian monotheism, they are beginning to emphasize this truth.

As Japan has had no adequate conception of God, her conception of man
has been of necessity defective. Indeed, the cause of her inadequate
conception of God is due in large measure to her inadequate conception
of man, which we have seen to be a necessary consequence of the
primitive communal order. Since, however, we have already given
considerable attention to Japan's inadequate conception of man, we
need do no more than refer to it in this connection.

Corresponding to her imperfect doctrines of God and of man is her
doctrine of sin. That the Japanese sense of sin is slight is a fact
generally admitted. This is the universal experience of the
missionary. Many Japanese with whom I have conversed seem to have no
consciousness of it whatever. Indeed, it is a difficult matter to
speak of to the Japanese, not only because of the etiquette involved,
but for the deeper reason of the deficiency of the language. There
exists no term in Japanese which corresponds to the Christian word
"sin." To tell a man he is a sinner without stopping to explain what
one means would be an insult, for he is not conscious of having broken
any of the laws of the land. Yet too much stress must not be laid on
this argument from the language, for the Buddhistic vocabulary
furnishes a number of terms which refer to the crime of transgressing
not the laws of the land, but those of Buddha.

In Shinto, sin is little, if anything, more than physical impurity.
Although Buddhism brought a higher conception of religion for the
initiated few, it gave no help to the ignorant multitudes, rather it
riveted their superstitions upon them. It spoke of law indeed, and
lust and sin; and of dreadful punishments for sin; but when it
explained sin it made its nature too shallow, being merely the result
of mental confusion; salvation, then, became simply intellectual
enlightenment; it also made the consequences of sin too remote and the
escape from them too easy. The doctrine of "Don," suddenness of
salvation, the many external and entirely formal rites, short
pilgrimages to famous shrines, the visiting of some neighboring temple
having miniature models of all the other efficacious shrines
throughout the land, the wearing of charms, the buying of "o fuda,"
and even the s