ot due
to the development of self-consciousness on the part of the people,
but only to the development of the language in the direction of
complete and concise expression of thought. It would be rash to say
that the feudal social order accounts for the lack of pronouns,
personal or others, from the Japanese language, but it is safe to
maintain that the feudal order, with its many gradations of social
rank, minute etiquette, and refined and highly developed personal
sensitiveness would adopt and foster an impersonal and honorific
method of personal allusion. Even though we may not be able to explain
the rise of the non-pronominal method of sentence structure, it is
enough if we see that this is a problem in the evolution of language,
and that Japanese pronominal deficiency is not to be attributed to
lack of consciousness of self, much less to the inherent
"impersonality" of the Japanese mind.

An interesting fact ignored by advocates of the "impersonal" theory is
the Japanese inability of conceiving nationality apart from
personality. Not only is the Emperor conceived as the living symbol of
Japanese nationality, but he is its embodiment and substance. The
Japanese race is popularly represented to be the offspring of the
royal house. Sovereignty resides completely and absolutely in him.
Authority to-day is acknowledged only in those who have it from him.
Popular rights are granted the people by him, and exist because of his
will alone. A single act of his could in theory abrogate the
constitution promulgated in 1889 and all the popular rights enjoyed
to-day by the nation. The Emperor of Japan could appropriate, without
in the least shocking the most patriotic Japanese, the long-famous
saying of Louis XIV., "L'etat, c'est moi." Mr. H. Kato, ex-president
of the Imperial University, in a recent work entitled the "Evolution
of Morality and Law" says this in just so many words: "Patriotism in
this country means loyalty to the throne. To the Japanese, the Emperor
and the country are the same. The Emperor of Japan, without the
slightest exaggeration, can say, 'L'etat, c'est moi.' The Japanese
believe that all their happiness is bound up with the Imperial line
and have no respect for any system of morality or law that fails to
take cognizance of this fact."

Mr. Yamaguchi, professor of history in the Peeresses' School and
lecturer in the Imperial Military College, thus writes in the _Far
East_: "The sovereign power of the Sta