Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/564

 548 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

ment precluded rise of a church. Nor was Buddhism, divided into hostile sects and opposed by the samurai, ever able to establish a hierarchy independent of the government. Personal freedom was suppressed, as it would be now under socialism, which is simply a reversion to an overcome type.

(Chap. 13) The second period of Japanese social evolution lasted from the eleventh to the nineteenth century, and was marked by dominance over the mikadoate of successive dynasties of shoguns. The permanence of this mikadoate amid all perturbations of the shogunate was owing to its religious nature. (Chap. 14) Following the lord in death, suicide, and vendetta were customs based on loyalty, and they involved the noblest self-sacrifice. (Chap. 15) Catholic missions were suppressed lest they should lead to the political con- quest of Japan. (Chap. 16) The Tokugawa shoguns exercised iron discipline, and now were brought to perfection those exquisite arts and manners of the Japanese. (Chap. 17) A revival of learning, begun in the eighteenth century, slowly led to a new nationalist sup- port of the mikado ; and when by 1891 the shogun had resigned and the daimiates been abolished, the third period in Japan's social evolu- tion began. (Chap. 18) In spite of outward seeming, the ancient social conditions and ancestor-cult still control every action. (Chap. 19) The individual is still restrained by the conventions of the masses, by communistic guilds of craftsmen, and by the government's prac- tice of taking loyal service in all its departments without giving adequate pecuniary reward. (Chap. 20) The educational system still maintains the old communism by training, not for indi- vidual ability, but for. co-operative action. This is favored, too, by the universal practice of rich men meeting the personal expenses of promising students. (Chap. 21) Japanese loyalty and courage will support her army and navy, but industrial competition with other peoples calls for individual freedom. (Chap. 22) The Japanese are not indifferent to religion, and can be understood only by a study of their religious and social evolution. Future changes will be social, but ancestor-cult will persist, and offers an insuperable obstacle to the spread of Christianity.

The critical reader will not have failed to meet in this summary many positions that challenge his previous knowledge, and whether these be correct or not can be determined only by an examination of the full text, which it eminently deserves. The reviewer, however, will confine himself to certain matters that seem to him the dominat-