=Gods of Classes and Qualities=.--No language is possible without some exercise of the powers of generalization and abstraction. In Japanese, however, we miss many of the more general, and especially of the more abstract, conceptions embodied in European languages, a circumstance which limits the scope of the personifying faculty, none too vigorous in itself. Supposing that we take the series of conceptions beginning with the concrete individual tree, and passing through evergreen oak, oak, tree, and vegetable, to the definitive generalization of the universe. The Japanese language has no word for vegetable except _sōmoku_, a recent compound of Chinese origin. The word for universe is _Ame-tsuchi_ (Heaven + earth) which is almost certainly a translation of the Chinese _ten-chi_. The consequence is that neither the class of vegetables nor the universe is recognized in the Japanese scheme of nature-deities. Individual trees are deified, and there is a God of trees, but that is all. The neglect of grammatical number in the Japanese language often obscures the distinction between the Gods of individual objects and of classes. _Ki no Kami_ means equally the God of the tree and the God of trees.[18] There is a marked poverty of abstract terms in the Japanese language, and the personification of abstract qualities is correspondingly restricted. There is scarcely anything in Shinto to compare with the numerous personified abstractions of Greek and Roman mythology. Izanagi and Izanami, embodiments of the creative or generative powers of nature, are probably not originally Japanese, but an echo of the _Yin_ and _Yang_ of Chinese philosophy. I have a suspicion that Musubi, the God of Growth, may yet be traced to a Chinese source. FOOTNOTES: [1] At the festival of Nifu Miōjin in Kiī, when the procession bearing offerings arrives before the shrine, the village chief calls out in a loud voice, "According to our annual custom, let us all laugh." To which a hearty response is given. This is because this God does not go to Idzumo for an annual visit like the others. [2] 'Sociology,' p. 153. [3] Compare with this the following description of the _huacas_ of the ancient Peruvians. "All those things which from their beauty and excellence are superior to other things of a like kind; things that are ugly and monstrous or that cause horror and fright; things out of the usual course of nature." [4] In the spirit of Wordsworth's "Listen, the mighty being is awake And doth with his eternal motion make A noise like thunder everlastingly."