Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-10
A FILIPINo's PHILOSOPHY.
Between the East and the West Line
Which Cannot Be Defined.
From the Century.

| FROM me century.
"Senor," answered the old man, .Iisten!
l am an old man. 1 know my people: but
/ know something of other peoples ALSO I
have not lived here all my time. I have
Travelled and have seen the world. 1 have
been in your own land. I have seen your
cities and your country. have been much
more in America than you Americans have
been here, yet I do not know the Ameri-
cans But they who have been here only
so few weeks or months talk assuredly of
the Filipfnos. AS if they could know ?
new people in such time! Truly the
Americans are a wonderful people, but they
they cannot do that I tell you senior that
they can never know us. just we can
never know them. For they are west and
We are east. and we cannot meet
Between US there Is a line which neither
you nor I can define. Nor can we tell
when we have crossed 1t. We make a
mathematical calculation and say: Here
we are over. That was west, this Is east
That calculation serves as a mark Of lonxi-
tude. fixed and absolute: but can you 20
out there on the ocean and show me the
line that divides the east from the west?
Can you see 1t. can you touch it, can you
feel 1t? The difference between the peoples
IL Just as great as tina, yet just as subtle and
as Intangible. Till you can mark that line
and fix 1t upon the face Of the unstable sea
you cannot determine the line of difference
between your people and mine. How. then,
will you understand us or we you? It can
not be.
II tell you that between us there is
more than what you know as race diff
ference in your country. There race diff
ference is still difference between western
races. Here 1t is a world difference. Be-
tween you and me there Is more than a
difference of color. of stature. or even of
civilization. There Is a radical intellectual
differences difference of thought Of under
standing. of Interpretation OF the same acts
and events. difference al
which neither you nor will ever be able
to comprehend fully of the other. We see
that 1t exists; why or how we can, never
know. We cannot fathom the ways or the
wisdom Of God. who made us both
yet there are some things we can know.
The civilization or the west is not for the
east. The two can never assimilate or
amalgamate. Your race and mine will
never join. Why, look you. in my country.
In this island. there are peoples who have
lived side by side for thousand years
and yet the line of demarca.ion is as dis
tinct today as 1t was In the beginning. Do
you think these people VIII assimilate with
newcomers from the west whom they have
known less than a thousand days?
Who can trace the course of mans
thoughts? There are certain facts. You and
I know them. You draw your conclusions
and draw mine. They coincide. For that
reason shall we say that you and think
alike? Perhaps 1t Is SO for that Time but
senior, the ways Of the east are not those OF
the west. This time and next time we
reach the same conclusion: then we differ,
and you do. not know why. nor do I. We
have worked through separate channels
even when we arrived at the same end.