The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-07-26

without sympathy ne West can
nevsr comprehend tho East, can never
hope TO comprehend II smear of
some manner OF grease on a cartridge,
a ohupatty on the doorsteps. and there
we have the Indian mutiny with It's
well OF blood and It's we'll of Cawnpore.
Tho loss OF empire was naught, the
rule of the alien might DO borne in
some uncomplaining fashion, the mere
pellicle of grease set tho Indian world
ablaze.
In our creeds and compendia Of re-
ligion, catechisms which begin with man,
y or NJ as the case may be. others
which begin with God, infinite, un-
changeable, direct us TO obsessions. fixed
ideas of that which IL right and that
which is wrong. We profess. and
largely practise canons OF virtue, truth,
RETAINING the hands from shedding
blood abstinence from larceny. practice
OF industry as n great good which we
try to regard as not a calamity. These
fixed ideas are our baggage when We
voyage on the Peninsular & Oriental or
Messagcries Maritimes and are duly
landed when we set foot in tho distant
East and find community in which
the treasures of our painfully won vir-
tue are little held in esteem. In the
East lie IL a convenience. a pleasure
of the intellect, a work OF art. never
a sin. 1t is in the East that the man
whose sensations Of life are faded Grams
them all into one crowded hour Of
"amok" and finds homicide a Joy rather
than a crime. Tho East regards lar
ceny as a profession, n learned profes-
sion 10 which men are eligible by in
heritance and in which they may ac-
quire fame rather than the blurred i'm
print OF finger tips, a profession with
It's religious conservation; Its practi-
toners have the skill TO uncocoon the
man from the sheet in which he sleeps
like a slltworm in It's rich web.
The mind wavers between tho lug
gage of morals fetched in oversee fer
riage from a land OF catechisms and the
other morals under which communities
have led their lives for ages. 1t is easy
to cling 10 the morals ono knows, to
condemn the oily sinners and to be-
come more and moro orthodox in the
contemplation OF those for whom the
older orthodoxy provides an exceeding
hot reward. But that Is not to compre-
bend the East.
Here Is problem in comprehension.
A stagnant backwater within tho smell
of q sleepy town, its waters yellow with
mud and yellower with the stain OF
Gamboge, itself the silly sum OF com
mon knowledge of Cambodia. In the
water up to the level of its backbone a
water buffalo, ruminant. on that back
just awash. with his arms twined
around the buffalo's horns and his face
turned upward 10 the sky. boy, naked.
fast asleep. pasturage Of files. Over
head the glstening leaves and strings
Of fruit Of the mango. everywhere the
clumps of bamboo tossing pollen dust
in red clouds, giant grass a hundred
feet in air. Incidence yet needing no
castle, laziness the fifth essence OF
shiftlessness, Occidental morality has
no hesitation in burning such idleness
on the affairs consccrated TO the goddess
Apis Mellifica. sympathy not rigid
morals. can bring comprehension of
this picture OF what Is to be seen when
the mist is on the rice fields an the
sun Is droppin' low" To sympathlze,
then TO comprehend, is the only path
along which to understand the great
cultures Of the distant East which have
left such magnificent memorials as the
structures in Angkor Vat