Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/132

 attention of others. Therefore the line of least resistance must always be sought even at the cost of some sacrifices. At first sight this explanation appears to confuse cause and effect; for rules of politeness, being only the expression of the mood that enacts them, cannot be regarded as its origin. There is historical reason to think, however, that Japanese politeness, though it may not have had its beginnings in the Confucian doctrine which places etiquette at the base of all sound administration, certainly owed much of its development to that doctrine. Evidently, if a man is trained to observe, in intercourse with his fellows, certain invariable methods of behaviour and address, he will come to respect the principles of which those methods are the outward expression. The Japanese must be credited with a natural aptitude for the graces of courtesy, or they could not have so greatly improved upon the models they borrowed from China; but their instinct may have been greatly quickened by the Confucian precept of etiquette which informed the Constitution of Prince Shōtoku. At all events, their canons of politeness inculcate self-effacement such as cannot fail to reinforce the spirit of compromise and conciliation. The language abounds not merely with honorifics which must be used when referring to others, but also with depreciative forms for indicating one's self, one's affairs, or one's belongings. A man's dwelling becomes "poor" when he speaks of it to a friend or a stranger; his child, "mis-