A Japanese noun is a crystallized concept, handed down unchanged from the childhood of the Japanese race.

So primitive a conception does it represent that it is neither a total nor a partial symbol, but rather the outcome of a first vague generality.

The word "man," for instance, means to them not one man, still less mankind, but that indefinite idea which struggles for embodiment in the utterance of the infant.

It represents not a person, but a thing, a material fact quite innocent of gender.

This early state of semi-consciousness the Japanese never outgrew.