vital characteristic of a
universal religion. It may better be called a non-local, or an
international religion. We now see another reason why Buddhism,
although found in many Oriental lands, has never annihilated any of
the pre-existing religions, but has only added one more to the many
varieties already existing. It is so in Thibet, in China, in Burmah,
and in Japan. And in India, its home, it has utterly died out.

Many of the efforts made by students of comparative religion to
classify the various religions, seem to the writer defective through
lack of the perception that social and religious evolution are vitally
connected. From this point of view, the classification of religions as
communal, individual, and communo-individual, would seem to be the
best.

XXXVI

WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ORIENT?

We have now passed in rather detailed review the emotional, aesthetic,
intellectual, moral, and religious characteristics of the Japanese
race. We have, furthermore, given considerable attention to the
problem of personality. We have tried to understand the relation of
each characteristic to the Japanese feudal system and social order.

The reader will perhaps feel some dissatisfaction with the results of
this study. "Are there, then," he may say, "no distinctive Japanese
psychical characteristics by which this Eastern race is radically
differentiated from those of the Occident?" "Are there no peculiar
features of an Oriental, mental and moral, which infallibly and always
distinguish him from an Occidental?" The reply to this question given
in the preceding chapters of this work is negative. For the sake,
however, of the reader who may not yet be thoroughly satisfied, it may
be well to examine this problem a little further, analyzing some of
the current characterizations of the Orient.

That Oriental and Occidental peoples are each possessed of certain
unique psychic characteristics, sharply and completely differentiating
them from each other, is the opinion of scientific sociologists as
well as of more popular writers. An Occidental entering the Orient is
well-nigh overwhelmed with amusement and surprise at the antipodal
characteristics of the two civilizations. Every visible expression of
Oriental civilization, every mode of thought, art, architecture;
conceptions of God, man, and nature; pronunciation and structure of
the language--all seem utterly different from their corresponding
ele