Page:Path of Vision; pocket essays of East and West.djvu/161



LOWLY but eagerly, like a child, the Orient is moving towards an object of irresistible attraction. Nay, modern thought is gradually lifting it from the depths of hebetude and pious contentment up to the heights of progress and unrest. But whether progress will eventually overcome its unrest or unrest will soon or late disenchant it with progress, remains to be seen.

One thing, however, is certain. The Orient can not keep up with the modern pace of science. Swathed in cant, saturated with tradition, given to abstractions, lulled in magnifications of speech and thought, the Oriental mind can not grasp the infinity of detail as well as the scope of scientific vision. The grafting of modern ideas upon it may prove, in certain instances, the contrary; but the elements hostile to its growth and development, though not visible always on the surface, are as vital, as potent in the liberal thinkers,