MENTAL QUALIFICATIONS.--Hardly less important than physical and spiritual are the mental qualifications. A mediocre man cannot do good work in any mission field, least of all in a field like Japan. None but strong men should be sent out. In former years, when the science of missions was little understood, it was thought a waste to send a man of unusual intellectual endowments, because an ordinary man could do the work just as well; but the boards have wisely {202} abandoned that policy. Experience has clearly demonstrated the wisdom of sending the very best men that can be had. In the first place, the prospective missionary to Japan should have as complete and thorough a mental training as possible. A full academic and theological course is highly desirable. He should know how to reason logically and profoundly, and should be a skilled dialectician, able to meet the native scholars on their own ground. The subtle philosophies of the East, which he will daily encounter, can only be dealt with by a man thoroughly trained. The atheistic and agnostic philosophies of the West are spread over all Japan, and the missionary must be able to combat them. Another reason why the missionary should be as highly educated as possible is that large numbers of the Japanese people are highly educated, and a man of poor ability and training cannot command their respect. Education is to-day being diffused more and more throughout Japan, and the missionary must work among an educated people. It is necessary that he feel himself to be at least the intellectual equal of all with whom he comes in contact. In order, then, successfully to combat the subtle philosophies of the East, to show the fallacies of the prevalent skeptical philosophies of the {203} West, and to command the respect of the people among whom he labors, the missionary to this land should have a thorough intellectual training. Linguistic talent is another essential, and especially so in Japan. No one should be sent here who is deficient in this. This language is perhaps the most difficult of all spoken languages for an Occidental to acquire. It is so thoroughly unlike any of the European languages that the student must change his view-point and learn to look at things as the Japanese do before he can make much progress. To master it one must study both Japanese and Chinese. While a fair linguist can, by hard work, preach with comparative intelligibility after three years of study, a complete mastery of the language is the work of a lifetime.