6 - East and West

Summary

Editors’ Note

Henry N. Ridley’s 1907 Presidential Address to the Society focused on a common topic of discussion in colonial circles: the differences between East and West. The paper is notable for its reflections of Ridley’s biological concerns around race. Beginning with the different histories of the races and civilizations of East and West his piece would then turn to the problem that W.R. Collyer’s paper had earlier discussed—the possibility of Western culture influencing the East. Although Collyer’s paper saw some future possibility of European societies reforming Eastern ones, Ridley’s paper suggests the division between East and West to be far more static and emphasized the permanent plurality of races. Using biological metaphors he suggested that whilst cultivation could improve “thorns and thistles”, you could not “gather grapes off thorns or figs off thistles… The inherent qualities of the species remain the same to the end of time”. And whilst he would see in the early twentieth century the growing adoption of Western science and culture, this adoption would remain superficial for him. The East could adopt Western culture, dress and technology, but this did not entail convergence between East and West as they would continue to remain racially distinct.

It is usual in a Presidential Address to select a subject for consideration which is of a general nature, and it is not, I have found, an easy matter to select one which is suitable for this occasion. I have considered, however, that some reflections on the relations and differences in the life-philosophy of the nations of East and West may prove of some interest, and this the more in that we have had of late in our discussions comparatively few of the studies of Eastern nations which we formerly so frequently listened to. Perhaps this is due to our having, as it might appear, rather exhausted the studies of the nations surrounding us; and thus I have selected the present subject, as suggestive of lines of research and thought on the life and thought of the Orientals.