478 



The Journal of Heredity 



instance where the inward life of the 

 soul has so completely absorbed all 

 the other faculties of a people."^ In 

 utter contrast with this view* is that of 

 a recent writer who sees the Hindoo 

 mind imprisoned in a world of elabor- 

 ate dreaminji, at once fantastic and 

 futile. 



"Indeed, what we ha\e called the 

 Hindu philosophy- is more than a 

 philosopln-; it is a racial tendency and 

 profound mental bias, and its domi- 

 nating influence is, as has been already 

 I)ointed out, written across the whole 

 page of Indian history-. For there is 

 this that is sinister al)out the Eastern 

 contemplati\e phil()soi)h>-, that it cuts 

 awa\' the groinid from under the feet 

 of all natural knowledge of whatever 

 kind. India's only teachers, her only 

 professors are those solitary dreamers 

 who remote from books and all the par- 

 aphernalia of research, commune with 

 the infinite in their own souls. India 

 has built up no edifice of mundane 

 knowledge and appears in all ages to 

 haw been totalK' regardless of all 

 mereh- intellectual achie\ement. She 

 is not interested in the world we live in, 

 and knows little or nothing about its 

 anatomy and its law's. vShe is not 

 interested in man, and know's little or 

 nothing about his history and ex- 

 ploits. . . . 



"India, in short, has never made 

 an>thing of either art or mundane 

 knowledge because Indian jihilosophy 

 from the first has met the claims of 

 Nature with a flat negative. The 

 first Indian seers who started the race 

 on a spiritual career, of which the 

 denial of material existence was an 

 es.sential coiuiition, laid the axe to the 

 root of all art as well as all secular 

 science- of whatsoe\er kind."' 



i'i<()(.i<i;s> ()|. ( i\ ii.i/ATioN Ki;i.\Ki)i;i) 



i!N jiiNDoo i;\Asio.\ (ji' riii'; i'rohi.icm 



OF i.ii'i'; 



So much for India; but tiic iiilluencc- 

 of Hindoo ai)slractioii, life-weariness 

 .iikI .isceticism ma>' be traced much 

 more wideh', not onh- in oriental coim- 

 tries, but in Western civilizat icjii. And 



* Mijllfr, Thounht.s on I.ifc and Rt-linidii, 

 '' I'hillipps, Lisle M. I'orni ;in(l Coloiii, \>. 



everywhere these tendencies are a 

 menace, or at least an imi^edimcnt in 

 the way of progress, in turning the 

 interest of intelligent and well-inten- 

 tioned people away from the concrete, 

 constructive problems of human life, 

 to seek some other "salvation" in 

 a world of abstract, speculative 

 "thought." If the problems are diffi- 

 cult, the more need of facing them 

 directly instead of seeking a "way of 

 escape." Surely it is a strange per- 

 version of the mind, and essentially a 

 superstitious perversion, that leads 

 men to turn their back on the actual 

 "world of the senses" and give their 

 lives to the elaboration of a world of 

 dreams, as in denying heredity and 

 holding to transmigration. 



FACT OF HEREDITY A DIRECT CAUSE OF 

 EMANCIPATION OF W^OMEN 



Another time-honored Oriental be- 

 lief that gives w^ay before modern 

 knowledge of heredity is that of genera- 

 tion as a male function exclusively, an 

 idea that explains why flescent came to 

 be reckoned exclusively in the male 

 line. Likeness of children to mothers 

 was explained by "prenatal influence," 

 not by inheritance as from the father. 

 This theory or superstition undoubt- 

 edly contributed to the subordination of 

 women among the Oriental nations, as 

 well as among the Mediterranean peo- 

 ples. The emancipation of woman 

 comes as a natural consequence of our 

 modern scientific knowledge of the 

 fact that the mother is an equal parent 

 of the child. 



RELIGIOUS FANATICISM AND THE ORIEN- 

 TAL PROBLEM 



Release of the Oriental nations from 

 the limitations imjiosed b\- their native 

 systems of goxernment and religious 

 belief is a momentous change, and to 

 many students and statesmen appears 

 to threaten the very existence of 

 Wt'stern ci\ilization. Instead of "The 



("oinmercial Prize of the Orient, riie 



Rising Tide of Color" is now in tiu' 

 bookstores. The coiumercial luiro- 

 pean nations, after forcing themselves 



pp. 77-7S. 

 KM-lll.S, I'M 5. 



