Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/74



N one respect Japan's story differs from that of nearly all other countries: the current of her national life was never diverted from its normal channel by successful foreign invasions or by any overwhelming inflow of alien races. It is true that her codes of ethics and social conventions were largely modified, from time to time, by foreign influences. But it is also true that she impressed the stamp of her own originality on everything coming to her from abroad, and that, leading what may be called an uninterruptedly domestic existence during twenty-five centuries, she developed characteristics so salient that in studying her annals there is forced upon our attention a continuity of easily synthesised traits.

No traces of autocratic sovereignty are to be found in the history of the early colonists. The general who led the invaders received recognition as their chief, but the offices of the newly organised States were divided among his principal followers, not as arbitrarily conferred gifts, but as spoils falling to them by right. The occupants