religion if
it cared to do so.

One point of interest in connection with the above facts is that the
old religions, however much of force, beauty, and truth we may concede
to them, have never made warfare against these obscene forms of
worship, nor against the notorious immorality of their devotees.
Whatever may be said of the profound philosophy of life involved in
phallic worship, for many hundreds of years it has been a source of
outrageous immorality. Nevertheless, there has never been any
continued and effective effort on the part of the higher types of
religion to exterminate the lower. But Japan is not peculiar in this
respect. India is even now amazingly immoral in certain forms of her
worship.

Another point of interest in this connection is that the change of the
nation in its attitude to this form of religion was due largely,
probably wholly, to contact with the nations of the West. The
uprooting of phallic worship was due, not to a moral reformation, but
to a political ambition. It was carried out, not in deference to
public opinion, but wholly by government command, though without doubt
the nobler opinion of the land approved of the government action. But
even this nobler public sentiment was aroused by the Occidental
stimulus. The success of the effort must be attributed not a little to
the age-long national custom of submitting absolutely to governmental
initiative and command.

Another point of interest is that, in consequence of official
pressure, the religious character of a large number of the people
seems to have undergone a radical change. The ordinary traveler in
Japan would not suspect that phallicism had ever been a prominent
feature of Japanese religious life. Only an inquisitive seeker can now
find the slightest evidences of this once popular cult. Here we have
an apparent change in the character of a people sudden and complete,
induced almost wholly by external causes. It shows that the previous
characteristic was not so deeply rooted in the physical or spiritual
nature of the race as many would have us believe. Can we escape the
conclusion that national characteristics are due much more to the
circle of dominant ideas and actual practices, than to the inherent
race nature?

The way in which phallicism has been suppressed during the present era
raises the general question of religious liberty in Japan. In this
respect, no less than in many others, a change has taken place so
great as t