greed, but reverence for unselfish ideals. It would be altogether
unjust, both to us and to Europe, to say that she has fascinated the
modern Eastern mind by the mere exhibition of her power. Through the
smoke of cannons and dust of markets the light of her moral nature has
shone bright, and she has brought to us the ideal of ethical freedom,
whose foundation lies deeper than social conventions and whose province
of activity is world-wide.
The East has instinctively felt, even through her aversion, that she has
a great deal to learn from Europe, not merely about the materials of
power, but about its inner source, which is of mind and of the moral
nature of man. Europe has been teaching us the higher obligations of
public good above those of the family and the clan, and the sacredness
of law, which makes society independent of individual caprice, secures
for it continuity of progress, and guarantees justice to all men of all
positions in life. Above all things Europe has held high before our
minds the banner of liberty, through centuries of martyrdom and
achievement,--liberty of conscience, liberty of thought and action,
liberty in the ideals of art and literature. And because Europe has won
our deep respect, she has become so dangerous for us where she is
turbulently weak and false,--dangerous like poison when it is served
along with our best food. There is one safety for us upon which we hope
we may count, and that is, that we can claim Europe herself as our ally
in our resistance to her temptations and to her violent encroachments;
for she has ever carried her own standard of perfection, by which we can
measure her falls and gauge her degrees of failure, by which we can call
her before her own tribunal and put her to shame,--the shame which is
the sign of the true pride of nobleness.
But our fear is, that the poison may be more powerful than the food,
and what is strength in her to-day may not be the sign of health, but
the contrary; for it may be temporarily caused by the upsetting of the
balance of life. Our fear is that evil has a fateful fascination when it
assumes dimensions which are colossal,--and though at last it is sure to
lose its centre of gravity by its abnormal disproportion, the mischief
which it creates before its fall may be beyond reparation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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