THE CALL OF THE EAST

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 389, 14 May 1910, Page 10

THE CALL OF THE EAST

WHAT ASIA HAS DONE FOR THE WORLD OF TRAVEL, ART AND LITERATURE. The Earl of Ronalds-hay proves him self a real traveller in a remarkabh article in "Travel and Exploration" on "The Call of the East." "The Call of the East! There is magic in the .phrase. It conjures up all the illusive witchery of Eastern scenes and the glamor of the Orient," he says. "Yet there are many for whom the 'Call of the East' has long since lost its appeal, for whom, indeed, under stress ot long and enforced familiarity with the prosaic actualities of daily life in East ern lands, it -has assumed a note of hoi hoi—even sardonic—mockery. EUROPE IN ASL\. "For many the 'Call of the East' has existed, does evist, and will exist, not always seductive, perhaps, but always insistent; and a moment's reflection will surely show that this name 'Call of the East' has been one of the governing factors in the making of modern history. From the day when the daring and enterprise of the great sea captains of Portugal solved the riddle of the southern seas, an unbroken and everswelling volume of explorers, soldiers and traders has -poured from Europe into Asia, attracted irresistibly to her vast and mysterious shores. Nations have risen and fallen on the tide of the Asian sea. Portugal, Spain, Holland, France and Great Britain have each been borne in rapid succession to the loftiest pinnacles of their greatness upon the crest of an Eastern wave. ASIA'S CURTAIN OF MYSTERY. "The day of conquest has sped bv, the Curtain of Mystery behind which 1 the now familiar outline of Asia loomed ' darkly to the pioneers of four centuries » ago has ibeen rolled aside; Asia stands i to-day a world revealed; yet the spell ; which she laid upon the traders and • adventurers of four centuries ago, she ■ casts over an indefinitely wider community at the .present time, s "There is, no doubt, still work for r the soldier and the explorer; the mer- > chant may still -find ample occupation t in spreading over the entire continent j the warp and woof of a vast commerl cial web; but with the gradual filling in T of -the mosaic of European ascendancy l the monopoly of trader and soldier has f passed avvay, and the early bands of fighting and trading pioneers have been swelled by a. vast army of travellers I and students who have been attracted in ever-increasing numbers to the limit- ' i less and fascinating fields of Eastern ' J study and research.

THE -CHARM OF ASli. "This shifting of the seat of gravity from West to East, if remarkable, is, nevertheless, neither inexplicable nor unnatural, for the very vastness and variety of the countries and peoples of the East have endowed the Continent of Asia with a manifold and inexhaustible charm. Philosopher and historian, literateur and artist, archaeologist and traveller, politician and diplomatist will one and all find ample scope within her boundaries for the exercise of their activities and the -practice of their powers.

"The admission qf the essayest Emerson, that 'Europe has always owed to Oriental genius its divine impulses,' is a mere generalisation of the great and indisputable truth that the three great religions which sway the world—Christianity, Mohammedanism, Buddhismhave without exception been born upon Asian soil.

WHAT ASIA HAS DONE FOR THE WORLD.

"Her contributions to literature and art provide worth}' monuments to the varied genius of her peoples; the absorbing chronicles of her empires and her kings constitute some of the most enchanting pages in world history; the names of her conquerors stand emblazoned among the rulers of the world. "Again, in the 'world of Eastern literature the man of letters will find food of many flavors. He may ponder on the wisdom of Confucius, the Chinese sage, he may revel in the outpourings of the Persian poets, of Firdusi or of Sadi, or again in the Riibaiyat of Oamr Khyam; and if perchance "he has himself been fortunate enough to experience the unique sensations produced by toiling from dawn to sunset over the sandstrewn waste of an Eastern desert, he will appreciate .as never before the incomparable word-painting of the Old Testament writers.

LITERATURE AND ART IN ASIA. , "Wias it not Isaiah who wrote oi 'rivers of water in a dry place, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land/ and Jeremiah who tells of 'a land of deserts and of pits, a land of droughts and of the shadow of deatn, a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt'? If we turn to the domain of art, we find in Asia's array of ■pavilions, tombs and temples faithful expression of the artistic spirit of her offspring. What could be more brilliant than the Shwey Dragon of Burma or the Temple of Heaven at Pekin; wfrat more ingenius in conception than the Japanese temples at Nikko or Tokio; what more delicate in workmanship and design than the beautiful Jain temple at the summit of Mount Abu; what more | superb than the great bronze image, the Great Buddha at Kamakura; what more amazing than the stupendous structures which still survive and are the glory of Samarkand? f

THE ROMANCE OF ASIA'S DUST. "In the fascinating field of archaeology, the sand-strewn 'wastes of Assyria and Chaldaea, the stately ruins of Susa and Persepolis, the jungle-cover-ed cities of Anardjapura" and Polanaruwa have yielded a rich store from the treasure-house of the past, while there still •exist wide fields for exploration and research in the "buried depths of the forbidding deserts of Taklamakan or in the unsolved riddle of the massive masonry of Angkor Thome. "For myself I confess that when standing amid the debris which marks the sites of Nineveh and ancient Babylon I have ibeen assailed with an overwhelming desire 'to 'wind the mighty secrets of the past and turn the key of time.' Indeed, as I have wandered among these haunts of bygone empires and trodden the Courts of Esarliaddon and Nebuchadnezzar, I have seemed to bear in imagination the hum of mighty workings come echoing from a remote antiquity down the dim corridors of time.

"And as to the Wanderer—the man stricken with than strange complaint which the Germans call der Wanderlust —what is the prospect which Asia holds out to him ? To such an one the varied scenery 'which she boasts is the source of an infinite and abiding charm."