ORIENTAL ELEMENTS OF CULTURE IN THE 0C(TDP:NT. 529 



If wc now pass in Tcview the preccdin<4' clistjiiisitions and recall all 

 the g'reat AVorld-traiis't'oVniino- consequences of those achievements 

 which we. without question, owe to the Orient, wc shall have to 

 acknowledge that they form the presuppositions of a very important 

 part of our mental life. Of course, our civilization is for all that 

 no more oriental than anticiue. Each people lives its own life of cul- 

 ture; oidy iujpulses come from the outside. To gain a right estimate 

 of their importance* we must not allow ourselves to l)e misled by 

 enthusiastic phrases, hut, standing on the solid ground of facts, 

 investigate how far the effect of the impulses reach, particular!}^ 

 whether they touch oidy a caste or the m;iss. While Hellenism did 

 not reach the people — a Greek name in a ]x>pular song would at once 

 characterize it as not genuine" — ])ut continues its existence chiefly 

 within certain scholastic circles, the usefulness of the compass, apart 

 from indirect wa^s, directly benctits the entire seafaring population, 

 and the advantages of explosives are appreciated by exovy soldier, while 

 writing and printing may be considered as the connnon pro})erty of 

 all mankind. 



We do not cultivate the languages of the Orient because of the 

 mighty influence of its people over the Occident in centuries past, but 

 because we hope from these studies there maj^ come even greater 

 beneflts in the future. As Humanism once meant a considerable 

 widening of the mental horizon, so it means at present for our state 

 of civilization an artiflcial nai'rowing, having crystalized into a cold 

 classicism'' and, according to the well-known law of human de\elop- 

 UKmt, resembling in many res})ects the old scholasticism which it once 

 conquered. But we expect, analogous to the Humanists, that our 

 science, after removal of certain external obstacles wliich of late have 

 hindered its progress, will have the mission, in union with other 

 sciences which are more and more being developed from decade to 

 decade, to deliver mankind from a one-sided woi'ld view and to give 

 it back the understanding for the beautiful in all its manifoldness. 



"Entirely erroneous is the theory propounded at present tliat popular poetry 

 arises solely from the more or less learned class. Where is the art form of the 

 <lra\ving-room from which, for instance, the popular ditties ("Schnaderhiipfei") 

 could have developed? There is only so much truth in this theory that no hard and 

 last lines can be drawn between both, and that they frequently influence one another, 

 though the really good conu's more often from below tiian from above. 



'' Ttie enrichment tlinniLili subjective assimilation of foreign elements is the latest 

 phase of development which is as yet in its beginning. 



SM 1902- 34 



