r, not so whimsical as this bit
of etiquette might suggest. The intent is with them the touchstone of
propriety. In their eyes a state of nature is not a state of indecency.
Whatever exposure is required for convenience is right; whatever
unnecessary, wrong. Such an Eden-like condition of society would seem to
be the very spot for a something like the modern French school of art to
have developed in. And yet it is just that study of the nude which has
from immemorial antiquity been entirely neglected in the Far East. An
ancient Greek, to say nothing of a modern Parisian, would have shocked a
Japanese. Yet we are shocked by them. We are astounded at the sights we
see in their country villages, while they in their turn marvel at the
exhibitions they witness in our city theatres. At their watering-places
the two sexes bathe promiscuously together in all the simplicity
of nature; but for a Japanese woman to appear on the stage in any
character, however proper, would be deemed indecent. The difference
between the two hemispheres may be said to consist in an artless liberty
on the one hand, and artistic license on the other. Their unwritten code
of propriety on the subject seems to be, "You must see, but you may not
observe."

These people live more in accordance with their code of propriety
than we do with ours. All classes alike conform to it. The adjective
"respectable," used above as a distinction in speaking of woman, was in
reality superfluous, for all women there, as far as appearance goes, are
respectable. Even the most abandoned creature does not betray her status
by her behavior. The reason of this uniformity and its psychological
importance I shall discuss later.

This form of modesty, a sort of want of modesty of form, has no
connection whatever with sex. It applies with equal force to the
male figure, which is even more exposed than the female, and offers
anatomical suggestions invaluable alike to the artistic and medical
professions,--suggestions that are equally ignored by both. The coolies
are frequently possessed of physiques which would have delighted Michael
Angelo; and as for the phenomenal corpulency of the wrestlers, it would
have made of the place a very paradise for Rubens. In regard to the
doctors,--for to call them surgeons would be to give a name to what does
not exist,--a lack of scientific zeal has been the cause of their not
investigating what tempts too seductively, we should imagine, to be
ig