That in Japan, however, which has interfered most powerfully with the spread and dominance of Buddhism has been the practical and prosaic Confucian ethics.  Apparently, Confucius never speculated.  Metaphysics and introspection alike had no charm for him.  He was concerned with conduct.  His developed doctrine demanded of all men obedience to the law of the five relations.  In spite, therefore, of the fact that he said nothing about individuality and personality, his system laid real emphasis on personality and demanded its continuous activity.  In all of his teachings the idea of personality in the full and proper sense of this word is always implicit, and sometimes is quite distinct.

The many strong and noble characters which glorify the feudal era are the product of Japonicized Confucianism, “Bushido,” and bear powerful witness to its practical emphasis on personality.  The loyalty, filial piety, courage, rectitude, honor, self-control, and suicide which it taught, defective though we must pronounce them from certain points of view, were yet very lofty and noble, and depended for their realization on the development of personality.

Advocates of the “impersonal” interpretation of the Orient have much to say about pantheism.  They assert the difficulty of conveying to the Oriental mind the idea of the personality of the Supreme Being.  Although some form of pantheism is doubtless the belief of the learned, the evidence that a personal conception of deity is widespread among the people seems so manifest that I need hardly do more than call attention to it.  This belief has helped to neutralize the paralyzing tendency of Buddhist fatalistic pantheism.

Shinto is personal from first to last.  Every one of its myriads of gods is a personal being, many of them deified men.

The most popular are the souls of men who became famous for some particularly noble, brave, or admirable deed.  Hero-worship is nothing if not personal.  Furthermore, in its doctrine of “San-shin-ittai,” “three gods, one body,” it curiously suggests the doctrine of the Trinity.

Popular Buddhism holds an equally personal conception of deity.  The objects of its worship are personifications of various qualities.  “Kwannon,” the goddess of mercy; “Jizo,” the guardian of travelers and children; “Emma O,” “King of Hell,” who punishes sinners; “Fudo Sama,” “The Immovable One,” are all personifications of the various attributes of deity and are worshiped as separate gods, each being represented by a uniform type of idol.  It is a curious fact that Buddhism, which started out with such a lofty rejection of deity, finally fell to the worship of idols, whereas Shinto, which is peculiarly the worship of personality, has never stooped to its representation in wood or stone.