ation as to the essential difference marking Oriental
and Occidental psychic natures is that the former is meditative and
appreciative, and the latter is active. This too is a characterization
of no little truth. The easy-going, time-forgetting, dreaming
characteristics of the Orient are in marked contrast to the rush,
bustle, and hurry of the Occident. One of the first and most forcible
impressions made on the Oriental visiting the West is the tremendous
energy displayed even in the ordinary everyday business. In the home
there is haste; on the streets men, women, and children are "always on
the run." It must seem to be literally so, when the walk of the
Occidental is compared with the slow, crawling rate at which the
Oriental moves. Horse cars, electric cars, steam cars, run at high
speed through crowded streets. Conversation is short and hurried.
Visits are curtailed--hardly more than glimpses. Everyone is so
nervously busy as to have no time for calm, undisturbed thought. So
does the Orient criticise and characterize the Occident.

In the Orient, on the contrary, time is nothing. Walking is slow,
business is deliberate, visiting is a fine art of bows and
conventional phrases preliminary to the real purpose of the call;
amusements even are long-drawn-out, theatrical performances requiring
an entire day. In the home there is no hurry, on the street there is
no rush. To the Occidental, the Oriental seems so absorbed in a dream
life that the actual life is to him but a dream.

If the characterization we are considering is meant to signify that
the Orient possesses a power of appreciation not possessed by the
West, then it seems to me an error. The Occident is not deficient in
appreciation. A better statement of the difference suggested by the
above characterization is that Western civilization is an expression
of Will, whereas Eastern civilization is an expression of
subordination to the superior--to Fate. This feature of Oriental
character is due to the fact that the Orient is still as a whole
communal in its social order, whereas the Occident is individualistic.
In the West each man makes his own fortune; his position in society
rests on his own individual energy. He is free to exert it at will.
Society praises him in proportion as he manifests energy, grit,
independence, and persistence. The social order selects such men and
advances them in political, in business, in social, and in academic
life. The energetic, ac