The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-13

meat in the all-absorbing selt-sulhci-
Cnt oriental state; the cult of poster
ity in lieu of supei stitious faith IN
elemental nature. 1t invites him to
model his life and history as he
wants to have them and not as pre-
destined by blind destiny.
The difference, however, is not in
mind alone but in character as well,
which is perhaps still more import
ant. The mastery of nature through
familiarity with natural laws has en-
ancipated western man from the sup
e!stitious fear of the elements tha.
oppressed and still Expresses the man
of the orient.
Look at Chinaman writing under
the nightmare of his Fang-Shui, local
geomantic deities, good and evil
spirits, with which his imagination
endows every hill, every clump of
trees, every brook, every street and
block of a city. Space appears to him
crowded with these mystical agencies
and therefore his behavior is very
little short of lunacy in our view. He
consults his INSCRIPTIONS OWNERS
and sorcerers at every step of life in
order to learn where he may or may
not bury his dead, where to locate a
store, on what day to open business
1osf OffpnH thO-o IJa h
jects to our building high factory
smokestacks and sinking mining
shafts lest We offend Fang-Shui or hit
the ribs of the dragon. That reminds
me of an American ambassador who
put an end to such discussion by pro-
ducing a silver dollar from his pocket
and saying: This Fang-Shui is more
powerful than all other Fang-Shul,
whether singly or all together"
He decorates his abode with mean
tations for fear that by mistake his
house may be invaded by evil Fang
Shut. He tries to drive them away
by the noise of firecrackers. His mind
is full of cobwebs which he exterior
ICES into space and sees it traversed
with countless strings of barbed wire
in all directions. To avoid them he
has to bow and jump and chant and
behave like a mailman.
There have been times when we all
were Orientals and not by origin
only Many of us still remain So
especially in the old Europe. Profess
sor Shaeffle, the prominent German
sociologist, says that as a matter of
fact with every nation different strata
of society still live in widely differ
ent historical epochs. While certain
classes, in their mind and character,
represent the modern man, others
still abide in fourteenth, sixteenth or
eighteenth centuries. This is very
true.
What was it that freed the Western
mans brain from this medieval fright
of elements? What awakened in him
this faith in his own power, the faith
in himself?
We judge others by our own stand
ard When a man has faith in him
self he nearly believes in his neigh
Dor with whom he must cooperate;
has faith in man. Hence comes as
the logical sequence the conscious
feeling of solidarity. Without such
faith no voluntary co-operation-the
only sound basis of collective activity
is possible, activity through which
alone great ends are Obtainable. No
faith in man-no democracy! The al
tentative is in the organization from
above, but this is the reverse of de-
mocracy. Compare the psychology Of
a mariner of former generations who
piled the seas on sails carried by the
will of winds and the navigator of a
modern oceanic leviathan. Which of
them knows that he will reach the
harbor at the appointed day and hour
regardless of weather? Compare the
Oriental peasant, filling land with
wooden shovel, whose only remedy |
against drought is in prayer for
rain, with the Western farmer plow-
ing with steam pillow artifcially irri-
gated and fortified fields. What gave