ears. It
must be confessed that the advantage is then entirely on the side of
the Occidental. Not only does this appear in the demonstrations of
affection which are continued throughout childhood, often even
throughout life, but more especially in the active parental solicitude
for the children's welfare, striving to fit them for life's duties and
watching carefully over their mental and moral education. In these
respects the average Occidental is far in advance of the average
Oriental.

I have been told that, since the coming in of the new civilization and
the rise of the new ideas about woman, marriage, and home, there is
clearly observable to the Japanese themselves a change in the way in
which children are being treated. But, even still, the elder son takes
the more prominent place in the affection of the family, and sons
precede daughters.

A fair statement of the case, therefore, is somewhat as follows: The
lower and laboring classes of Japan seem to have more visible
affection for their children than the same classes in the Occident.
Among the middle and upper classes, however, the balance is in favor
of the West. In the East, while, without doubt, there always has been
and is now a pure and natural affection, it is also true that this
natural affection has been more mixed with utilitarian considerations
than in the West. Christian Japanese, however, differ little from
Christian Americans in this respect. The differences between the East
and the West are largely due to the differing industrial and family
conditions induced by the social order.

The correctness of this general statement will perhaps be better
appreciated if we consider in detail some of the facts of Japanese
family life. Let us notice first the very loose ties, as they seem to
us, holding the Japanese family together. It is one of the constant
wonders to us Westerners how families can break up into fragments, as
they constantly do. One third of the marriages end in divorce; and in
case of divorce, the children all stay with the father's family. It
would seem as if the love of the mother for her children could not be
very strong where divorce under such a condition is so common. Or,
perhaps, it would be truer to say that divorce would be far more
frequent than it is but for the mother's love for her children. For I
am assured that many a mother endures most distressing conditions
rather than leave her children. Furthermore, the way in which par