ABSTRACT
Europe, divided as it is politically, has certain mental characteristics which are not so often found in the U.S.A. Recently, my wife and I met a European family settled in America. After talking all the time of how happy they are here and how kind and friendly the people are, they remarked as we were leaving: ‘It’s nice to meet Europeans. Even when they are of a different nation, one somehow feels at home with them.’ (Actually this family was German.) The common traits among Europeans depend, I think, entirely on persistence of certain old traditions in education and social life. There are important elements of the monastic tradition (with the emphasis on the study of ancient culture that went with it) which are especially found in higher education. The American outlook is more practical, more concerned with morals and less with creeds. Since the Encyclopaedia Britannica became American it has become (as one can see by comparing different editions) much more informative on scientific and practical matters concerned with the modern world, less good on history and cultural subjects. The habit of using machinery and mechanical devices has penetrated more deeply into the minds of Americans than of Europeans, and has given men more sense of mastery over their environment. Europe looks backward, America forward. When Europeans attempt to think creatively of the future, they produce something crude and harsh, like fascism or communism, because of the effort required to break with the past, which makes them throw away all that is good as well as all that is bad. The Americans, on the other hand, being less imprisoned by old ways of thought, are able to see what is good in them. For these reasons, and because of the greater security of life in America, Americans are more vigorous mentally than Europeans, but less subtle. Europeans, weighed down by the burden of history, tend to be over-subtle and to lose vigour. Americans are much more warm-hearted and friendly, and therefore end to be unselective. I was told recently by a young American who had lived in Europe that in America he knew many people well, with mutual liking, but had few intimate friends. In Europe, most people were aloof and difficult to know, but there he had been able to form one or two really intimate friendships. Europeans are too selective. They seem, and are, indifferent to the point of hostility and suspiciousness, but at the same time the intimacy of close friendships seems to mean more to them.
