y good
reading knowledge of English, French, and German. Those few who have
had good and sufficient teaching, or who have been abroad and lived in
Occidental lands, have in addition secured ready conversational use of
the various languages. Indeed, some have contended that since the
Japanese learn foreign languages more easily than foreigners learn
Japanese, they have greater linguistic powers than the foreigner. It
should be borne in mind, however, that in such a comparison, not only
are the time required and the proficiency; attained to be considered,
but also the inherent difficulty of the language studied and the
linguistic helps provided the student.

I have come gradually to the conclusion that the Japanese are neither
particularly gifted nor particularly deficient in powers of language
acquisition. They rank with Occidental peoples in this respect.

To my mind language affords one of the best possible proofs of the
general contention of this volume that the characteristics which
distinguish the races are social rather than biological. The reason
why the languages of the different races differ is not because the
brain-types of the races are different, but only because of the
isolated social evolution which the races have experienced. Had it
been possible for Japan to maintain throughout the ages perfect and
continuous social intercourse with the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxon
race, while still maintaining biological isolation, _i.e._, perfect
freedom from intermarriage, there is no reason to think that two
distinct languages so different as English and Japanese would have
arisen. The fact that Japanese children can accurately acquire
English, and that English or American children can accurately acquire
Japanese, proves conclusively that diversities of language do not rest
on brain differences and brain heredity, but exclusively on social
differences and social heredity.

If this is true, then the argument can easily be extended to all the
features that differentiate the civilizations of different races; for
the language of any race is, in a sense, the epitome of the
civilization of that race. All its ideas, customs, theologies,
philosophies, sciences, mythologies; all its characteristic thoughts,
conceptions, ideals; all its distinguishing social features, are
represented in its language. Indeed, they enter into it as determining
factors, and by means of it are transmitted from age to age. This
argument is capab