East and the West : a study of their psychic and cultural charateristics

"The East and the West have met." This, says Sir Rabindranath Tagore, is the most important fact of the twentieth century. Their contact is closer and their intertwining interests are more fateful than they have ever been during all past ages. Thousands of men and women-seamen, soldiers, tourists, mer chants, laborers-have been passing back and forth during recent decades be tween the two great branches of the human family. It has not been easy for them to understand what they saw. Yet it is extremely important that they should each appreciate the character and attainments of the other in order to achieve a richer world-culture, a more harmonious universal society, and more common world-view.

The East and the West-two vast psychological continents, each with its own psychological climate, psychological river and mountain systems, broad psychological plateaux, groups of psychological peaks partially concealed by mists of misunderstanding or clouds of ignorance-what a stimulating chal lenge to inquiring minds! Yet underlying these diverse continents and moun tain systems reposes the foundation of a common human nature.

Mankind is on the march. Everywhere, long accepted patterns of life are rapidly changing. All South and East Asia are in political and social revolu tion. The old era of isolation has practically ended. A cosmopolitan life is arising. A stupendous and tragically thrilling drama is unrolling before the astonished eyes of all races and nations.

There is little doubt that the outer life of a people is pre-eminently molded by their habitat and economic factors, while their inner life is molded by their religion and philosophy, that is, by their underlying concepts, their world-view, their sense of values and of duties. Any real insight, therefore, into the character of a people requires a grasp of their concepts about man and the universe, both visible and invisible. Hence our prolonged attention in this work to religious, aesthetic, and other cultural factors.