The answer is plain to him who has eyes with which to see. Can the
Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? No more can Japan
lose all trace of inherited customs of daily life, of habits of
thought and language, products of a thousand years of training in
Chinese literature, Buddhist doctrine, and Confucian ethics. That "the
boy is father to the man" is true of a nation no less than of an
individual. What a youth has been at home in his habits of thought, in
his purpose and spirit and in their manifestation in action, will
largely determine his after-life. In like manner the mental and moral
history of Japan has so stamped certain characteristics on her
language, on her thought, and above all on her temperament and
character, that, however she may strive to Westernize herself, it is
impossible for her to obliterate her Oriental features. She will
inevitably and always remain Japanese.

Japan has already produced an Occidento-Oriental civilization. Time
will serve progressively to Occidentalize it. But there is no reason
for thinking that it will ever become wholly Occidentalized. A
Westerner visiting Japan will always be impressed with its Oriental
features, while an Asiatic will be impressed with its Occidental
features. This progressive Occidentalization of Japan will take place
according to the laws of social evolution, of which we must speak
somewhat more fully in a later chapter.

An important question bearing on this problem is the precise nature of
the characteristics differentiating the Occident and the Orient. What
exactly do we mean when we say that the Japanese are Oriental and will
always bear the marks of the Orient in their civilization, however
much they may absorb from the West? The importance and difficulty of
this question have led the writer to defer its consideration till