But enough. It has become clear
that these terms have not been used consistently, nor are the
definitions such as to command the assent of any careful psychologist
or philosopher. What the writer means to say is, I judge, that the
measure of a man's personality is the amount of impression he makes on
his fellows. For the whole drift of his argument is that both the
physical and mental aggressiveness of the Occidental is far greater
than that of the Oriental; this characteristic, he asserts, is due to
the deficient development of personality in the Orient, and this
deficient development he calls "impersonality." If those writers who
describe the Orient as "impersonal" fail in their definition of the
term "personal," their failure to define "impersonal" is even more
striking. They use the term as if it were so well known as to need no
definition; yet their usage ascribes to it contrary conceptions. As a
rule they conceive of "impersonality" as a deficiency of development;
yet, when they attempt to describe its nature, they speak of it as
self-suppression. A clear statement of this latter point may be found
in a passage already quoted: "Politeness takes the place of
personalities. With him [the Oriental], self is suppressed, and an
ever-present regard for others is substituted." "Impersonality, by
lessening the interest in one's self, induces one to take interest in
others." In this statement it will be noted the "_self is
suppressed_." Does "impersonality" then follow personality, as a
matter of historical development? It would so appear from this and
kindred passages. But if this is true, then Japan is _more_ instead of
less developed than the Occident. Yet this is exactly the reverse of
that for which this school of thought contends.

Let us now examine some concrete illustrations adduced by those who
advocate Japanese impersonality. They may be arranged in two classes:
those that are due wholly to invention, and those that are doubtless
facts, but that may be better accounted for by some other theory than
that of "impersonality."

Mr. Lowell makes amusing material out of the two children's festivals,
known by the Japanese as "Sekku," occurring on March 3 and June 5 (old
calendar). Because the first of these is exclusively for the girls and
the second is exclusively for the boys, Mr. Lowell concludes that they
are general birthdays, in spite of the fact which he seems to know
that the ages are not reckoned from these