Evening star., 1923-08-13
THE
DRAGON
BY DIR. FRANK CRANE.

, and Japan without seeing every
where about him, in dwelling and in
temple. in the merchant shop and In
the public building, on screens,
canes, clothes and every other con-
ceivable object of human work or
play the ever recurring shape of the
dragon.
He watches you from roofs, peers
at you from dark corners, sneers at
you from affairs. leers up at you from
floors. jeers over you at banquets-
in short. companions you from the
| swaddling clothes of infancy to the
cerements Of the grave.
Life seems to be just one dragon
after another.
They lend themselves peculiarly
to decoration. and combine strongly
the grotesque, the beautiful and the
shocking.
The original idea of the dragon,
which might be called the dragon
motif, was fear.
The first and dominant note of hu-
man life, as the soul made its first
struggle upward toward civilization,
was terror. Man found himself sur
fEunded fitnd1ndy by infinite. a complicated, mul-
preyed on him, the serpents stung
him, the insects pricked him, the
MOODS drowned him. the sun scorched
MIN, and the rising passions of his
own heart wracked him like great
STORMS and with every pleasure
brought danger, a pain and a fear.
SO the first religion was one of
terror.
Fear made the gods" said the
romans. indeed that feeling still
echoes throughout the human race.
as one form or another of supersti-
tlon' Tor most religion among the
tTipes OF men is nothing but dread
oI the unknown; man fears the in
mite as children fear the dark
one can see this idea working out
| IN most religious rites and creeds.
TOT they seem to be nearly all ges-
lures Tor averting the anger of the
supernatural
The western traveller is so familiar
with the ceremonies of the church
that he hardly recognizes them as
capitalization Of fear, but when he
enters Buddhist or Shinto temple
the realization Of this is shattering
In the crowded temples at Nikko.
for instance, the most important
place of Buddhism and Shintoism in
Japan, you will find every device OF
Here is a five-storied elaborate pa
Of 1t you are told that it is to pro-
| tect the place from the demons
Here is a tall pillar set up: the
object of this is also to defend the
tombs of the Shoguns from demons
On each side of every gate Is the
statue of a ferocious warrior, one
usually with his mouth open and the
other with his mouth shut repre-
senting active and passive resistance
TO the evil spirits.
There are also sculptured lions and
tigers and cats and monkeys, all
watching to fight against the dread
full spirits.
One beautiful gate has tweIeve pill
lars exquisitely carven: one of these
pillars was deliberately placed up
side down. lest the gods who were
Jealous of human perfection should
be peeved by such beauty.
Perhaps the most important note
of modernity is the friendliness of
note of antiquity. whether in the
| orient. in Greece. in Europe, or
| among the savage tribes Of the west
has been the jealousy and vindictive-
ness of the gods.
The age of science has liberated the
soul of man and taught him to con-
slider nature as r. vast mother and
\ friend whose cooperation it is his
chief business TO seek. whereas the
ancient world fought forever a los
ing battle against the universe
dodgfng, appeasing. now defying and
now groveling before the gods
The real contribution which Jesus
| OF Nazareth made TO the world was
| His revelation of the Deity as friend
/ ly. When He taught His disciples tc
| pray. saying, Our Father" and wher
| He told the story Of the prodiga,
SON. He laid the spiritual founda
| tions for that house for the soul OF
man which the age of science and the
! age of democracy were, two thou
sand years afterward. to begin build
| ing.
For the foundation of all human
progress Is the friendliness of the
universe; the superstructure of the
I edifce is the understanding of and
! the cooperation with the laws of the
universe.
And in the future house of life
| there shall be no dragon.