ficult one to convey to the Japanese, if clear
definitions are used. The Japanese language has, as we have seen, many
words referring to the individuality, to the self of manhood; it
merely lacks the general abstract term, "personality." This is,
however, in keeping with the general characteristics of the language.
Abstract terms are, compared with English, relatively rare. Yet with
the new civilization they are being coined and introduced.
Furthermore, the English term "personality" is readily used by the
great majority of educated Christians just as they use such words as
"life," "power," "success," "patriotism," and "Christianity."

In the summer of 1898, with the Rev. C.A. Clark I was invited to speak
on the "Outlines of Christianity" in a school for Buddhist priests. At
the close of our thirty-minute addresses, a young man arose and spoke
for fifty minutes, outlining the Buddhist system of thought; his
address consisted of an exposition of the law of cause and effect; he
also stated some of the reasons why the Christian conception of God
and the universe seemed to him utterly unsatisfactory; the objections
raised were those now current in Japan--such, for example, as that if
God really were the creator of the universe, why are some men rich and
some poor, some high-born and some low-born. He also asked the
question who made God? In a two-minute reply I stated that his
objections showed that he did not understand the Christian's position;
and I asked in turn what was the origin of the law of cause and
effect. The following day the chief priest, the head of the school and
its most highly educated instructor, dined with us. We of course
talked of the various aspects of Christian and Buddhist doctrine.
Finally he asked me how I would answer the question as to who created
God, and as to the origin of the law of cause and effect. I explained
as clearly as I could the Christian view of God, in his personality
and as being the original and only source of all existence, whether of
physical or of human nature. He seemed to drink it all in and
expressed his satisfaction at the close in the words, "Taihen ni man
zoku shimashita," "That is exceedingly satisfactory"; these words he
repeated several times. This is not my first personal proof of the
fact that the idea of personality is not alien or incomprehensible to
the Orient, nor even to a Buddhist priest, steeped in Buddhist
speculation, provided the idea is clearly stated.