recent writer in
the London _Daily Mail_ has illustrated afresh the futility of all
attempts to catalogue the distinguishing characteristics of the
Oriental. He names the inferior position assigned to women, the
licentiousness of men, licensed prostitution, lack of the play
instinct among Oriental boys, scorn of Occidental civilization, and
the rude treatment of foreigners. Many of his statements of facts are
sadly at fault. But supposing them to be true, are they the
differentiating characteristics of the Orient? Consider for a moment
what was the position of woman in ancient times in the Occident, and
what was the moral character of Occidental men? Is not prostitution
licensed to-day in the leading cities of Europe? And is there not an
unblushing prostitution in the larger cities of England and America
which would put to shame the licensed prostitution of Japan? Are
Orientals and their civilization universally esteemed and
considerately treated in the Occident? Surely none of these are
uniquely Oriental characteristics, distinguishing them from Occidental
peoples as clearly as the anatomical characteristics of oblique eyes
and yellow skin.

Mr. Percival Lowell has made a careful philosophical effort to
discover the essential psychic nature of the Orient. He describes it,
as we have seen, as "Impersonality." The failure of his effort we
have sufficiently considered.

There remain a few other characterizations of the Orient that we may
well examine briefly.

It has been stated that the characteristic psychic trait
distinguishing the East from the West is that the former is intuitive,
while the latter is logical. In olden times Oriental instruction
relied on the intuitions of the student. No reliance was placed on the
logical process. Religion, so far as it was not ceremony and magic,
was intuitional, "Satori," "Enlightenment," was the keyword. Each man
attains enlightenment by himself--through a flash of intuition. Moral
instruction likewise was intuitional. Dogmatic statements were made
whose truth the learner was to discover for himself; no effort was
made to explain them. Teaching aimed to go direct to the point, not
stopping to explain the way thither.

That this was and is a characteristic of the Orient cannot be
disputed. The facts are abundant and clear. But the question is
whether this is a racial psychic characteristic, such that it
inevitably controls the entire thinking of an Oriental, whatever his
ed