Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/393

Rh race grow to be, the more abstract become its gods, and in consequence the less they deign temporarily to inhabit mankind. A growing incapacity to conceive how a more and more abstracted god would act in the concrete is indirectly responsible for this. Among aboriginal peoples the gods themselves descend to embodiment in man; among more evolved races the spirits of departed men take their place.

But it is not simply in their morals that the gods show themselves in sympathy with their people. In their characters generally you shall see reflected the race characteristics. In Japan the gods are eminently Japanese. They are dignified, artistic, simple souls, of the most exceptional deportment. Their life is made up of one long chain of ornamental, if somewhat conventional, moments.

Especially is this agreement of gods and men conspicuous in that most interesting of Japanese traits—the race's unindividuality. As we saw, one of the strangest features of Japanese possession is the way in which several gods deign to share one trance. Now when this copartnership is closely