brothers are practically equal, and it would be
considered a violation of Christian righteousness for a parent to show
more favor to one child than to another. In this respect the "wisdom
that cometh from above" is "without partiality." The Chinese ethical
system, however, disregards the principle of mutual rights and duties,
and builds up the family on the theory of the subordination of the
younger brother to the elder brother, the predominant idea being not
mutual love, but, far more than in the Christian household, that of rank
and order. The attitude of the heir of the family toward the other
children is one of condescension, and they, as well as the widowed
mother, regard the oldest son with reverence. It is as though the
commandment given on Sinai should read, "Honor thy father and thy elder
brother."

The mother is an instrument rather than a person in the life of the
house, and the older brother is the one on whom rests the responsibility
of continuing the family line. The younger brothers serve as subjects
for adoption into other families, especially those where there are
daughters to be married and family names to be continued. In a word, the
name belongs to the house and not to the individual. The habit of naming
children after relatives or friends of the parents, or illustrious men
and women, is unknown in Old Japan, though an approach to this common
custom among us is made by conferring or making use of part of a name,
usually by the transferrence of one ideograph forming the name-word.
Such a practice lays stress upon personality, and so has no place in the
country without pronouns, where the idea of continuing the personal
house or semi-personal family, is predominant. The customs prevalent in
life are strong even in death, and the elder brother or sister, in some
provinces, did not go to the funeral of the younger. This state of
affairs is reflected in Japanese literature, and produces in romance as
well as in history many situations and episodes which seem almost
incredible to the Western mind.

In the lands ruled by Confucius the grown-up children usually live under
the parental roof, and there are few independent homes as we understand
them. The so-called family is composed both of the living and of the
dead, and constitutes the unit of society.

Friendship and Humanity.

The Fifth Relation--Friends. Here, again, a mistake is often made by
those who import ideas of Christendom into the terms u