Asia and Europe : studies presenting the conclusions formed by the author in a long life devoted to the subject of the relations between Asia and Europe / by Meredith Townsend.

  • Meredith Townsend
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Asia and Europe : studies presenting the conclusions formed by the author in a long life devoted to the subject of the relations between Asia and Europe / by Meredith Townsend. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ing that of any city in Europe up to 1800 have dwelt —under it is true insanitary conditions nearly as bad as those of Naples fifty years ago—but in peace and security without insurrections or any grave danger, save from their own rulers, to life and property. Asiatics built the Alhambra and the Taj, the temples above the ghauts of Benares, and the fan- tastic towers of Nankin. Asiatics unassisted by Europeans have carried all the arts, save sculpture and painting, to a high degree of perfection, so that learned men have written volumes to explain their architecture; and while no pottery can excel Chinese porcelain, no swordsmith a Damascus blade, no goldsmith will promise to improve on a Trichino- poly chain. No doubt they have halted everywhere in their march towards mastery of nature. Some strange fiat of arrest, probably due to mental exhaustion, has condemned the brown men and the yellow men to eternal reproduction of old ideas. They have treated earth as if they feared it. Dung is burnt for fuel above unused coal-bearing strata. Asiatics work in all metals, yet from end to end of Asia great stores of iron or platinum and tin, of copper, silver and gold lie untouched, waiting the touch of the European spoiler. All must have been found ages since, or whence the stores existing before trade with Europe began, and if the energy in digging which was there once had continued, even the riches of Asia would by this time have
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