catalogue
those traits--An attempt by the London _Daily Mail_--Is the East
inherently intuitive, and the West logical?--The difficulty of
becoming mutually acquainted--The secret of genuine acquaintance--Is
the East inherently meditative and the West active?--Oriental unity
and characteristics are social, not inherent--Isolated evolution is
divergent--Mutual influence of the East and the West--Summary
statement, 422

XXXVII. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

Review of our course of thought--Purpose of this chapter--The problem
studied in this work--Interrelation of social and psychic
phenomena--Heredity defined and analyzed--Evolution defined--Exact
definition of our question, and our reply--What would be an adequate
disproof of our position--Reasons for limiting the discussion to
advanced races--Divergent evolution dependent on
segregation--Distinction between racial and social unity--Relation of
the individual psychic character to the social order--"Race soul" a
convenient fiction--Psychic function produces psychic organism--Causes
and nature of plasticity and fixity of society--Relation of incarnate
ideas to character and destiny--Valuelessness of "floating"
ideas--Progress is at once communal and individual--Personality is its
cause, aim, and criterion--Progress in personality is
ethico-religious--Japanese social and psychic evolution not
exceptional, 438

INTRODUCTION

The tragedy enacted in China during the closing year of the nineteenth
century marks an epoch in the history of China and of the world. Two
world-views, two types of civilization met in deadly conflict, and the
inherent weakness of isolated, belated, superstitious and corrupt
paganism was revealed. Moreover, during this, China's crisis, Japan
for the first time stepped out upon the world's stage of political and
military activity. She was recognized as a civilized nation, worthy to
share with the great nations of the earth the responsibility of ruling
the lawless and backward races.

The correctness of any interpretation as to the significance of this
conflict between the opposing civilizations turns, ultimately, on the
question as to what is the real nature of man and of society. If it be
true, as maintained by Prof. Le Bon and his school, that the mental
and moral character of a people is as fixed as its physiological
characteristics, then the conflict in China is at bottom a conflict of
races, not of civilizations.

The inadequacy of the p