In these days the East is in need of material progress and
the West is in want of a spiritual idea. It would be well for the West to turn
to the East for illumination, and to give in exchange its scientific knowledge.
There must be this interchange of gifts.
The East and the West must unite to give to each other what
is lacking. This union will bring about a true civilization, where the
spiritual is expressed and carried out in the material. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, from a
talk, Paris, October 20, 1911, ‘Paris Talks’)
