THE RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST
THE RELIGIONS
AND PHILOSOPHIES
OF THE EAST m 58
BY
J. M. KENNEDY
Author of "THE QUINTESSENCE OF NIETZSCHE"
"Tout ce que nous pensons, et toutes les
mani&res dont nous pensons, ont leur origine en
Asie."
Gobineau.
NEW YORK
JOHN LANE COMPANY
MCMXI
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE ...... ix
CHAPTER I ..... i
Primitive civilisation Origin of religion Influence
of politics on religion Meaning of the word.
CHAPTER II . . . .11
The Aryans Early wanderings Brahma Aryan and
Semitic mythology The caste system The
Aryans in Europe The priestly caste Early
Brahmanical writings Law codes The Vedas
Literary development Gods.
CHAPTER III . . . . .43
Later Brahmanism The Bhagavad-Gita Krishna
Development of Krishnaism Krishna and the
New Testament Religious system of the
Bhagavad-Gita Chandals Pariahs.
CHAPTER IV . . . .54
The rise of Buddhism Religion in theory and practice
Birth of the Buddha His early years Studies
and temptations His system of propagating the
faith Illness and death Character of the Buddha
European influence of Buddhism.
CHAPTER V . , . . -77
Buddhism continued. Nirvana Transmigration
Commandments for monks and laymen Relics
of Buddha Distinction between Buddhism and
Christianity King Asoka the Buddhist The
Edicts of Asoka Bureaucracy foiled Buddhistic
writings.
vii
viii CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER VI . . . .98
The early Arabs Their religious system Birth of
Mohammed His early studies The Hanifs
Mohammed's alleged "epilepsy" His lonely
meditations His first revelation Early converts
Quarrels with the Meccans Flight to Medina
Progress of Islamism Capture of Medina
Death of the Prophet His successors.
CHAPTER VII . . . . .142
Mohammedanism continued. The Koran Its form
The psychology of Mohammed Themes dealt
with in the Koran The poetical Suras Legal
decisions Holy wars The ethics of Islamism
Commentaries on the Koran Islamic fatalism
Development of Mohammedanism Sunnites
Shiites Babism Behaism .
CHAPTER VIII . . . . .185
The Jews Their condition under the Egyptians
Moses Monotheism v. Polytheism The
Israelites leave Egypt Sinai The Ten Com-
mandments Jewish morality Its aristocratic
nature The Promised Land The kings The
Babylonian Captivity Toleration.
CHAPTER IX . . . .204
Indian philosophy The Jains China Confucius,
his system of morals Lao-Tze Taoism
Mencius Lack of poetry in China Japan, its
early religious system Shintoism Buddhism
Bushido The Samurai.
CHAPTER X ..... 234
Minor Asiatic religions The Babylonians Zoroaster
Parsees Hittites Mithraism.
CHAPTER XI . . . .252
Summary and conclusion East and West The influ-
ence of Asia in Europe.
BIBLIOGRAPHY . , . . .269
INDEX ... . 273
PREFACE
AMONG the comparatively few people in
England who take any interest in philosophy,
religion, metaphysics and allied subjects, it is
certain that Nietzsche's works have during the
last year or two been studied with increasing
attention. It is not, perhaps, surprising that
his views should have been at first received
with astonishment and impatience ; for England
seems fated to be separated from the Continent,
wherever thought is concerned, by a distance
which it takes a quarter of a century to traverse.
Again, the absurd methods of teaching foreign
languages adopted in our schools cut us off
from communication with many an excellent
book or review article which shows the trend
of the times abroad, particularly in Germany
and Italy, the two countries where the phil-
osophy of morality has been for some years in
its most flourishing condition.
x PREFACE
Nietzsche and his school, however, have
come to stay ; and I merely mention these
matters by way of showing that, if any views
on the moral side of religion expressed in the
following pages should seem strange to the
less advanced section of the British public, they
are nevertheless founded on a basis which has
the authority of most of the best Continental
thinkers of repute : the Nietzschian standard
of good and bad.
What is good ? Everything that increases the feeling of
power, the will to power, power itself, in man.
What is bad ? All that proceeds from weakness.
What is happiness ? The feeling that power is increas-
ing, that resistance is being overcome.
The pages that follow, then, do not merely
record the main principles of the most important
religions of the East, but they also indicate an
attempt to apply to those religions the standards
of moral values referred to above. I believe I
am correct in saying that no such attempt has
hitherto been made. In the bibliography at
the end of the book I have named about a
third of the works to which I am mainly in-
debted ; but I have also had the advantage of a
PREFACE xi
sufficiently long period of residence in the East
to enable me to observe personally certain
characteristics which I have referred to here
and there. For several interesting suggestions
concerning Mohammed, I have to thank Dr
Oscar Levy ; while Mr A. R. Orage, Editor of
The New Age, who deserves to be better known
for the keen psychological insight he has brought
to bear on Oriental problems, has communicated
to me his views upon the sources of the Laws
of Manu. Lastly, Mr A. M. Ludovici has
reminded me of some points, usually forgotten,
in connection with Greek art. As the views
expressed are entirely my own, however, none
of these gentlemen is to be saddled with the
responsibility for any of the statements, con-
troversial or otherwise, which I have made.
J. M. KENNEDY.
THE RELIGIONS AND
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST
CHAPTER I
Primitive civilisation Origin of religion Influence of
politics on religion Meaning of the word.
WITHIN the last fifty years probably more
light has been thrown, directly and indirectly,
on the problem of the origin of civilisation and
society than on any other subject within the range
of science. Geology, for example, has enabled us
to gauge, with something resembling accuracy,
the age of the earth. The fossil remains of
animals which we find it difficult even to name,
provide us with a means of ascertaining what
kind of living creatures the earth actually
supported millions of years ago. To these we
must add the discoveries made in the domains
of philology and archaeology. Even so conser-
vative a philologist as Prof. Henry Sweet, for
example, estimates that the Aryan language
3 ' THE RELIGIONS AND
was spoken in a pure form not less than 12,000
years ago. Fragments of monuments and
inscriptions, portions of the ruins of long-
buried cities, have enabled us to construct the
history of past nations and empires. More
than all, the enormous impetus given to
psychological investigations, first by Nietzsche,
and continued by his followers, more especially
the younger school of Italian psychologists,
represented by Sera, has led us to read history
and study sciences in an entirely new frame of
mind. To take another branch of the subject,
until comparatively recently the morality of
religion was inextricably confused with its
dogma. The former is all-important, the
latter of trifling and ephemeral value. Kant,
Schopenhauer, Hegel, Darwin, Huxley,
Spencer, and their numerous followers and
imitators, spent a great part of their energies
in consciously or unconsciously disproving
Christian dogma, while all the time leaving its
morality, its values of good and evil, unharmed.
For centuries, ever since the establishment of
Christianity as the religion of Western Europe,
all the views of eminent scientists, even those
who turned against the Christian religion and
sought to disprove it, were subconsciously
influenced by Christian morality. It is only
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 3
since the advent of Nietzsche (for Goethe,
when he referred to this matter, did so in
cautious sentences, not meant for general per-
ception) that scientists have begun to see their
errors in this respect, and it is only since the
beginning of the nineteenth century that the
dawn of a new era in thought may be said to
have appeared. For the first time in nineteen
long centuries centuries of bigotry and super-
stition never before equalled in the history of the
world men have an opportunity of consider-
ing scientific and ethical problems with their
minds untrammelled by the Christian values of
good and evil. But the Goddess of Wisdom
has been imprisoned in an underground dungeon
since the dawn of the Christian era, and she
still feels ill at ease in the light of day.
When we endeavour to trace the origin of
civilisation as a stepping-stone to the origin
and formation of religions, we find the back-
ward path even more difficult than might have
been expected. China, I ndia, and Egypt are the
three great strongholds of ancient learning, and
in these countries the records go back some-
thing like 6000 years. But what we can now
know of, say, China in the year 4000 B.C., is
sufficient to show us that even at that time a
portion of the country was highly civilised,
4 THE RELIGIONS AND
possessing all the arts of a progressive com-
munity, including even a fully-developed
system of handwriting. In India the story is
the same. The further we trace back what we
conceive to be the primitive origins of society,
we find that we are not engaged in a study
of primitive origins at all, but of something
highly complex, something which has evolved
scientifically in the course of thousands of
years. To return to Professor Sweet again,
we know, as every philologist knows, that the
Aryan language dates from at least 10,000 B.C.
But the very fact that such a language could
be in existence one hundred centuries before
the birth of Christ is sufficient to show us that
it must have been spoken and inscribed on
rocks and cavern-roofs hundreds of years before
that, and that those who spoke it in such a
manner as to make it endure for a long time
must have been a highly-organised body of
men an early society, in fact ; the ancestors
of those who were destined in later ages to
found the first great Indian Empire. The
mind may well become appalled when contem-
plating the consequences of what has happened
in the world during a period of 12,000 years ;
but a close psychological examination of the
question makes it clear that the change which
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 5
has taken place in the essential nature of man
between 10,000 B.C. and the present day is so
slight as to be almost imperceptible. Some
instinct has always actuated animals and men
from the beginnings of life on earth. Darwin
and the evolutionists called it the struggle for
existence ; Schopenhauer named it the Will to
live ; Nietzsche designated it more correctly
by the term Will to Power. In any case,
all three definitions connote the idea of a cease-
less struggle, in which the fittest, though
doubtless not always the best, survive.
In the case of the human kind this struggle
led to the elimination of those who were unfitted
to stand the ruthless competition the weak,
the degenerate, the crippled, the physically and
mentally defective. To trace how the weak
gradually assured their safety by influencing
the sacerdotal classes, and little by little formed
religions of their own, which they sedulously
upheld, cultivated and propagated, forms one
of the most fascinating studies a psychologist
can undertake. Such a religion, as Nietzsche
and others have conclusively demonstrated, is
Christianity ; such also, but, as will be seen
later on, to a much less extent, is Buddhism.
In entering upon the investigation of any
Eastern religion, however, the student will
6 THE RELIGIONS AND
find himself in difficulties if he wishes to make
an impartial study of the question through
books written in English. It has, unfortunately,
happened that nearly all the English works
dealing with this question have been written
either by missionaries or by travellers and
Government officials without any psychological
insight. As a consequence, nearly every book
by these people is written with a conscious or
unconscious prejudice that Christianity is the
final word in religion, and that all other faiths
must necessarily be inferior. When endeavour-
ing to examine into the origin of religions, and
to ascertain the distinctions between the different
faiths of the East and the West, I was unable
to find any English book which did not, in
some chapter or another, read like a tract.
One cannot but marvel at the impudence and
conceit of the Christian missionary who goes
to, say, India, after a short course of training
and straightway proceeds to confute with
specially-prepared arguments the doctrines of
a belief devised by a much superior class of
men a belief, indeed, to which Christianity
itself can easily be traced.
Two world-wide religions owe their huge
followings and development to the hazard of
politics. The first in order of time is Buddhism,
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 7
which was adopted by the Indian king, Asoka,
about 250 B.C. to keep his turbulent subjects
quiet in order that he might consolidate the
fruits of his victories. The second was
Christianity, elevated to a State religion by
Constantine the Great in 324 A.D., though the
Roman emperor himself did not show any
particular eagerness to be baptised. But, if
Christianity suits the people of Europe, it does
not follow that it suits the people of India, any
more than we can say that Buddhism is a good
religion for Burmah, and is therefore suitable
for England. But we must come back to
Nietzsche's outlook again. A religion, or a
system of morals, which comes to the same
thing, is invented by a certain type of people
in order that they may propagate and preserve
their race. What tends to their preservation,
i.e., what helps them to attain to power over
their competitors will be, to them, " good " ;
what hinders them from attaining their object
will be "bad." It naturally follows that the
"good" of Buddhism will not necessarily
correspond to the "good" of Judaism, and
vice versa. We can thus perceive, to some
extent, the mistake made by the Christian
missionaries who proceeded to write about and
criticise other religions. They neglect the
8 THE RELIGIONS AND
early history of Christianity and the influence
upon Christ's teaching of the Ebionites and the
Essenes.
Before we proceed further, however, what is
religion ? Possibly we might define it briefly
as that which endeavours to bring man into
contact with a higher power ; but the actual
meaning of the word has varied from century
to century. Religion may now mean faith,
cult, morality, hope, terror, ecstasy, fear of the
gods. A Central African negro kneels down
before some fetish and would understand by
the " religion " the instinct which urges him to
do this. For Kant, on the other hand, religion
simply means morality. The Brahman has
one form of religion in his youth, when he
offers up his little sacrifices at daybreak and
prays " Enlighten us, we beseech thee," and
another in his old age when, looking upon
prayer and sacrifice as useless, he retires to
some solitary spot and gives himself up to
meditation. Fichte regards religion merely as
a science. Schleiermacher knows it as "the
knowledge of our absolute dependence, some-
thing which determines us and which we cannot
determine in return/' Hegel defines it as
" unconstrained liberty." " For," he says, " if
it is dependence which makes religion, then the
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 9
dog is the most religious of all beings." For
Feuerbach, again, religion is love of one's self.
" For the feeling which is at the base of all
the feelings, desires and actions of man is the
satisfying of the human being and human
egoism : it is the sick heart of man which is
the source of all religion and all misery."
In tracing the development of religions, we
find that they are always associated with one
powerful mind : a mind which interprets the
inarticulate aspirations and desires of a race
or a nation and formulates them into a series
of rules which, in order that their value may not
be doubted, are ascribed to some supernatural
source. Around such personalities it is but
natural that numerous legends should grow
up, not only rendering the theologian's
path more difficult, but leading many critics,
particularly Germans, to incline to the belief
that such personages did not exist at all,
but were merely the assumptions of daring
poets and soothsayers endeavouring to explain
the origin of their faith. Another common
characteristic of such great teachers is the
fact that, while history has with more or
less accuracy recorded their performances and
sayings in middle and later life, we find very
little material dealing with their youth. The
io RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES
critics are rapidly becoming fewer in number,
however, who hold that this very fact is
sufficient to confirm the theory that all these
great teachers were made and not born. In
regard to the Buddha, for example, the tales
about his youth are purely traditional : he
only really comes into prominence at twenty-
nine or thirty. The same remark applies to
Moses, to Zarathustra, to Mohammed, and,
in a lesser degree, to Christ. But it is surely
evident that men like these would not be
likely to come into much prominence in youth,
and history would not need to consider them
at such a time.
CHAPTER II
The Aryans Early wanderings Brahma Aryan and
Semitic mythology The caste system The Aryans
in Europe The priestly caste Early Brahmanical
writings Law codes The Vedas Literary de-
velopment Gods.
THE remote antiquity of the Aryan language
has already been referred to. In regard
to the tribe itself the direct evidence now
at our disposal is scanty, and it is only
by the patient investigations of various
scientists, assisted by the recent progress in
the applications of psychological principles to
historical affairs, that we have been able to
trace the probable development of the Aryans.
No doubt, however, remains as to the descent
of the fair-skinned tribes from the Pamir
plateau into the lower plains of India and
the great empire which they succeeded in
founding there. Racial pride naturally raised
a barrier between these conquerors and the
aborigines whom they subdued, another
barrier separating the ruling nobles from the
lower classes of the tribes, and in the course
of time the priestly caste managed, after many
ii
12 THE RELIGIONS AND
generations of bitter controversy and struggle,
to secure the supreme spiritual power. Thus
the insurmountable, or almost insurmountable,
barriers of caste gradually came into being,
and upon them the religious order of the
community was based.
Philological and ethnological discoveries have
led to the conclusion that the Englishman and
the Hindoo had a common ancestor, the
one belonging to the Eastern and the other
to the Western branch of the Aryan race. It
is probable, in view of the length of time
which it is calculated a race needs in order
to develop, that the Aryans cannot have
originated much less than 60,000 years ago
in the territory which we now know as Persia,
Afghanistan, and Asia Minor. Generations
afterwards the increased population would
have overspread all North-western India and
probably encroached upon what is now known
as the Punjab. Then would naturally begin
the descent of the warriors upon Middle and
Southern India, while the western division
of the huge tribe would be making its way
through Southern Russia into what is now
Poland and Austria. After centuries of
residence in the different climates, the de-
scendants of the original stock would become
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 13
entirely unlike their forbears, and thousands
of years after their first wanderings it is left
to the philologist to put words and fragments
of words together and gradually trace back
the prehistoric origin of the race. Thus, in
the Rig-Veda (a book, the contents of which
will be explained later in this chapter), we
find the chief of a tribe referred to as " vis-
pati," i.e., " ruler of settlers/* the same meaning
being seen in the old Persian c< vis-paiti," and
also in the modern Lithuanian cc wiez-patis,"
one of the numerous links which establishes
the connection between East and West.
As an Indian writer has pointed out, 1 the
Hindoos alone, of all the Aryan-speaking
peoples, seem to have preserved some recollec-
tion of having been foreign settlers in the
country of their adoption. Few nations forgot
their origin sooner than did the Greeks, who
considered themselves as the original inhabitants
of the Hellenic peninsula, although they un-
consciously preserved some traditions which
suffice to indicate their foreign origin, as a
reference to Homer and the famous catalogue
of ships will show. The mythological account
of the war between gods and demons is
common to all the Aryan nations, and the
1 M. Venkata Ratnam : The Hebrew Origin of the Brahmins.
14 THE RELIGIONS AND
Greek legend of the war between the Titans and
the gods is paralleled in Indian mythology by
the tales of the conflicts between the Suras
and the Asuras, i.e., between the gods and
the demons, which is described in the earliest
remnants of Indian literature we possess. The
Trojan war, again, is but the legendary Greek
version of the struggle described in the
Ramayana.
Undoubtedly one of the halting-places of
the Aryans on their journey towards the East
was Meru (modern Merv) in Turkestan, which
occupies much the same place in Hindoo
mythology as does Olympus in the case of the
Greeks. The researches of Prof. Sayce and
other eminent investigators in this field have
thrown much light on the relation of Assyria
to the Aryans ; but a discussion of this ques-
tion belongs more to a purely ethnological
work. There is no doubt that this part of
Western Asia bore the seeds from which sprang
every religion on the face of the earth ; but to
so great an extent did the travelling Aryans
split up into different nations and religious
groups, that an extended enquiry into the
common origin of their faiths would be of
little value for an interpretation of their
subsequent development.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 15
As for Brahma himself, who gave his name
to the religion of the Hindoos, there seems to
be good reason for supposing that the name
originally referred to the Biblical Abraham.
While the modern Hindoo looks upon Brahma,
plus Krishna, as " God/' and, the Eastern mind
naturally running to pantheism, sees " Brahma "
in everything, the ancient Hindoos regarded
Brahma as the Greeks did Zeus (Jupiter), as
a being possessing a human form. It has been
pointed out that a comparison of the legend
concerning Zeus and Brahma tends to show that
they were one and the same person, the western
branch of the Aryans taking the legend with
them to Greece, and the ancestors of the
Hindoos bearing it towards India. Zeus, the
king of the gods, married his sister Hera and
made her queen. Brahma, according to the
old Sanskrit chronicle, married his daughter
Sarasvati. Compare this with the old Jewish
legend (Gen. xix. 33-38). Again, the word
Brahman comes from the root brih, meaning
to increase, while Abraham would appear to
signify "father of a multitude." Brahma
(masculine) was at first Brahmam (neuter), which
to some extent parallels the Biblical statement
that Abraham's name was at first Abram, <c the
high father." Abraham, too, was the " Father
16 THE RELIGIONS AND
of the Israelites," and Brahma is often referred
to as Pitra-maha, "the great father/' (Cf.
Jupiter, which is made up of Jovis plus pater.)
Finally, the name of Brahma's wife, Sarasvati,
was originally written Sarada, from the same
root as the name of Abraham's wife, Sarah.
Other analogies could readily be quoted, but
these will be sufficient to show the reader the
close connection between the Greeks, the
Semites, and the Hindoos.
Thousands of years before the Christian era
the Aryans developed their wandering instinct
already referred to ; and it is recorded that
when the tribes moved from place to place
they invariably drove their cattle with them.
From time immemorial the cow has been
considered as sacred in India, doubtless because
to it was largely due the prosperity of the
white-skinned invaders. Strangely enough,
the early settlers, as we can see from references
in the sacred books, ate meat and drank a
liquid resembling beer, contrary to the modern
practice. The vitality of the Hindoo seemed
to leave him when he gave up his meat for rice.
Little by little the Aryans made their way east
of the Indus, through the Punjab, and into the
central plains. This was a slow process, and
during the time it was proceeding whole nations
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 17
had sprung up from among the original tribe
of invaders. A similar development was going
on in the West, where the Aryans gradually
became the ruling castes throughout Europe ;
but a survey of this long and complicated
process would be rather out of place in the
present work.
It may be interesting, however, to mention
one point. It has virtually been established,
for instance, that the present upper or
governing classes throughout Europe are the
descendants of the invading western Aryans,
the menials (i.e., the so-called " working "
classes) being the descendants of the uncivilised
and ill-developed aborigines. The caste system
did not develop in Europe to the same extent
as in Asia, and not even feudalism could prevent
constant intermarrying between the Aryans and
the natives. The result is that at this day the
two races, the higher and the lower, appear to
the superficial eye to have fused, more especially
as common advantages and necessities have
long since developed what, for want of a better
term, we may call a semi-instinct, " patriotism/'
Nevertheless, when great moral (not political)
crises occur, the difference between the high
and low races becomes apparent. Christianity,
for instance, was seized upon by the lower
i8 THE RELIGIONS AND
classes with delirious joy at the time of its
introduction into Europe as an excuse for
rendering themselves morally independent of
their rulers. The process of weakening the
power of the strong by every conceivable means
has proceeded steadily for nineteen hundred
years, and is fast reaching its culminating point.
The less-developed masses, that is to say, the
lower castes of northern European countries,
cannot understand or appreciate beauty, though,
as Nietzsche indicated, the world can be
justified only as an aesthetic phenomenon.
Hence, as early Christianity had fortunately
borrowed many beautiful symbols from
paganism (many of which may be seen in the
modern Roman Catholic Church), these
barbarously-minded people made several
attempts to deprive the religion of its beauty,
since beauty can be understood and created
only by the aristocratic castes, though it may
be highly valued by lower castes which have
come through a long period of evolution, such,
for example, as are to be found in Italy and
France. The result was Huss, the Lollards,
Luther, and the " Reformation." Happily, the
aristocratic Church of England was left unin-
fluenced, so far as its symbols were concerned,
though a few unimportant changes were made
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 19
in its dogma. But the Lutheran Church,
which, in Germany, corresponds to the
Dissenters in England and Scotland, spread an
appalling, thick blanket of dreariness, ignorance,
and bigotry over millions of Europeans which
subsists to this day. The consequence has
been an endeavour to carry into practice the
extreme tenets interpolated into the New
Testament by the Essene and Ebionite sects ;
hence in Teutonic countries we see beauty disre-
garded and even looked on with suspicion, the
dissemination of the most ridiculous of modern
movements, humanitarianism, which would
almost 1 compel man by law to be responsible
for his neighbour, socialism, and the pampering
of the lower classes to the detriment of the
higher castes.
To return to our Hindoo brethren, we find
the single race of Aryans separated in the
course of time into distinct nations, but always
preserving the essential characteristic of caste :
first, the priests, or Brahmans ; secondly, the
nobles and warriors, known in ancient times
as the Kshatriyas, and at present as Rajputs ;
thirdly, the husbandmen and merchants ; and,
fourthly, the lowest caste, the Sudras, who
formed the descendants of the conquered
aborigines. They are often referred to in
20 THE RELIGIONS AND
the Brahmanical writings by many contemp-
tuous epithets.
The priesthood was the last of the castes to
be formed. In very early times, indeed, we
can easily see from passages in the Rig-Veda
that the caste system was almost unknown.
The warrior is naturally separated from his
dependents and servants ; but the head of each
family acted as his own priest. In later times
the ruler of a tribe would perhaps select some
person of great Vedic learning to prepare a
sacrifice to the local god, and in time such
men came to form an important section of a
warrior's retinue. Years afterwards, by their
appropriation of the sacred books and the
increase in their numbers^ they endeavoured to
arrogate to themselves the supreme power in
the Aryan community. But this pretension was
at once disputed by the warrior caste, and a
long struggle ensued for the mastery. Dr
Sera has concisely summed up this warfare :
The primitive relationships between masters and
servants were those which necessitated muscular and
brute force, and violent physical superiority, for it was
precisely by their physical supremacy and warlike gifts
that aristocrats arose. The share of intelligence in
mastering men began with the rise to power of the clergy.
It may even be said that the clergy were the first thinkers,
and as such were at first reviled by the strong men and
the warriors. . . . The clergy, however, with their
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 21
cunning, their indirect and equivocal manners, and the
seduction of their spirituality, knew how to possess them-
selves of power as well as the fierce aristocrats, by whom,
although at first looked upon with suspicion, they were at
length considered almost as equals. The succession of these
stages appears to be an inherent rhythm in human society,
and the effect of laws which are to be found identically
the same almost everywhere, for we observe the same
phenomena in the East and particularly in India. Thus
Indian tradition speaks of a terrible battle which took place
between the Brahmans the higher orders of the clergy
and the ancient race of warriors, although both classes sprang
from the nation of Aryan conquerors which descended into
India and there founded their civilisation. What is even
more noteworthy is that this battle between the religious
and aristocratic classes ended in the defeat, even in the
annihilation, of the latter ; but after a short time the priests
saw that they had committed a grave error, and were com-
pelled to gather together the bastard lines of the ancient
stock to save Indian society from utter dissolution. 1
Having laid claim to religion and philosophy
as their special subjects, the Brahmans lost no
time in securing their social supremacy by law.
Early legal Brahmanical writings are found in
the Vedas ; and about 400 B.C. and 200 A.D.
they formulated their code of laws in two
great digests, upon which all later Hindoo
jurisprudence has been founded. The first of
these is the law book of Manu, and shows us
the social organisation of the Brahmans shortly
after their supremacy in the community had been
undisputedly made to prevail. The Brahmans,
1 Dr L, G. Sera ; On the Tracks of Life, chap, ix,
22 THE RELIGIONS AND
indeed, claimed Divine origin for these laws,
and ascribed their written form to Manu, the first
Aryan man, who had lived some 30,000,000
years before. In reality, however, the laws of
Manu are but an attempted codification of
the customs of the Brahmans in Northern India,
handed down orally through generations, and
finally condensed into a written form.
The second great digest is that of Yajna-
valkya. It represents the legal side of the
great controversy between Brahmanism and
Buddhism, when the latter faith had dislodged
the former in many parts of India.
In both codes we find three great divisions
ofjjiadoojaw. The first applies to djomestic
matters and the righits and duties of the
various castes ; the second relates to the ad-
ministration of justice ; and the third to
religious observances. It is obvious that the
Brahmans, although professing to codify cer-
tain hitherto unwritten usages of the race,
took care to carry out the task in such a way
as to assure their own predominance. The
exact boundaries of the castes are clearly
specified. Each has certain hereditary duties
allotted to it, and intermarriage between them
is prohibited. It is hardly necessary to add
that the Brahmans reserve for their own caste
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 23
the sole spiritual power in the commonwealth.
Nevertheless, from the penalties prescribed in
the codes, it is apparent that even in early
times there were illicit connections between the
castes by marriage. Provision is also made
for " mixed " castes and tribes, so that the four
great divisions Brahmans, warriors, husband-
men, serfs occasionally encroached upon one
another. The lowest caste, or Sudras, hope-
lessly cowed down for generations, never made
any attempt to rise from its state of servitude ;
but there appear to be many instances of
courageous and wealthy men of the third caste
becoming members of the warrior caste, and
it would likewise seem that the Brahmans
occasionally admitted recruits from the warrior
caste immediately below them. The Brahmans
owed their constantly increasing power to the
fact that they not only held the sacred books of
the race, but, in addition, monopolised philo-
sophy and science. For centuries they were
the only teachers, and even the secular or f ' pro-
fane " literature had its origin among them.
It must not be assumed that the English
occupation of India and the consequent different
trend given to education, or the Buddhistic
conquest a century or so before the Christian
era, had any effect in undermining the authority
24 THE RELIGIONS AND
of the Brahmans. Their power was succes-
sively assailed by the rise of the Buddhists,
the Greek invasion, the Mohammedan invasion,
and the English occupation, but it was never
altogether taken away from them. Buddhism,
as will be seen in another chapter, was at one
time spread throughout India, but, as its
missionaries gradually made their way further
afield to Thibet, China, Burmah, and Japan
their faith seemed to leave India with them,
and Brahmanism regained the ascendency which
it still holds. True, Buddhism left its traces,
and modern Hinduism is partly an amalgama-
tion of both religions, but the essential principles
of the Brahmanical learning are still respected
and followed. And this long-enduring power
is chiefly the result of the plasticity of the law
codes, and the subtlety with which the priests
applied them. As the Brahmans multiplied
and moved with the other divisions of the
tribes throughout India, they brought their
codes with them and established them on the
conquered nations in much the same way as
the Romans established not only their laws but
their language also. In many instances, how-
ever, it was found necessary to adapt the formal
digest to suit local conditions, and the codes
fortunately lent themselves to such changes.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 25
The collected writings of the Brahmans, the
substance of which was handed down verbally
from generation to generation, appear to date,
in their written form, from about 3000 B.C.
Although, of course, gradually compiled,
memorised, and written down by the priests
in the first instance, later generations came to
look upon them as directly inspired by the
gods, nor is this the only comparison which
can be made between the writings of the
Brahmans and the Old Testament. To all
these Hindoo scriptures is applied the collec-
tive name Veda (knowledge) or, less commonly,
Sruti (revelation). The collections (Sanhitas)
of sacred writings (Mantras) comprise (i) the
Rig-Veda, (2) the Saman or Samaveda, (3) the
Yajush or Yajurveda, (4) the Atharvan or
Atharvaveda. To each of these text-books
or manuals of religion is attached a series of
prose works (Brahmanas), the aim of which is
to explain the text-books and the nature of the
sacrificial rites mentioned in them. In some
cases two much more modern commentaries
are added, the Aranyakas and the Upanishads.
The Aranyakas do little more than supple-
ment the Brahmanas in a few points of little
interest to Europeans, but the Upanishads
are of somewhat greater value to us, since in
26 THE RELIGIONS AND
them we find the fruits of early Indian specu-
lation on the problems of the universe. The
Saman and the Yajush, dealing mainly with
matters of ritual, and containing many quota-
tions from the Rig-Veda, are of small importance
to all but earnest theologians.
The hymns of the Rig- Veda, on the other
hand, are of very great value. By a careful
comparison of the different divisions of this
work, philologists have shown conclusively that
the interval between the writing of the first
poem and the writing of the last cannot be
much less than 1000 years. The actual date
of the composition of the poems, however, is
a question which it is now practically impossible
to answer. They were handed down from
father to son, from warrior to warrior, from
Brahman to Brahman, for many generations,
and they serve to a great extent to show us,
in view of their descriptive passages, the routes
taken by the Aryans in their wanderings
throughout India. An analysis of the Iliad and
Odyssey is simplicity itself as compared with
an analysis of the Rig-Veda. It is easier to
ascertain who wrote the Pentateuch than to
find out who, at various times and places, drew
up the Hindoo scriptures.
The period of Indian history represented by
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 27
/
the Vedas is the period of conquest, and
corresponds in point of time to the invasion of
the Aryans and the beginning of their long
march through the Indian continent, until at
last the tribes settled down in various districts.
The Rig-Veda speaks of the natives of India
as Dasyrus, calling them " bull-faced " men,
almost noseless, and with very short arms.
These aborigines were probably allied ethno-
logically to the Mongolians : in the first place
they were yellow-skinned ; * and in the second
they possessed the Chinese characteristic of
never having evolved the idea of a God. This
is a distinct trait of the yellow races, and it is
seen in the success which Buddhism met with
in China and Japan ; for Buddha, too, makes
no mention of God, and the Chinese philo-
sophers contented themselves with building
up a system of morals on a purely rationalistic
basis.
With people like these, it was but natural
that the Aryans should have nothing to do.
The white conquerors were proud of their
intellectual and physical superiority, and to
such an extent did they leave their traces on
India that, for sixty centuries, down to the
1 A few of the northern aboriginal tribes seem to have bee|Kf a
yellowish-black colour ; in the centre and south they were quite yellow.
28 THE RELIGIONS AND
present day, we find that the word Arya always
connotes nobleness and pre-eminence. It re-
appears another tribute to the spread of the
race in the German Ehre (honour, nobleness),
which forms part of the name of the German
warrior whom the Romans found so redoubt-
able an antagonist, Arminius, i.e., Ehrmann, a
man of honour. The Aryans, not being
afflicted with the Christian disease of humility,
which is philosophically a sin and riot a virtue,
made no secret of the fact that they looked
upon themselves as the salt of the earth far
excellence. " The Pure," " the White Race,"
"the Sons of Light/' " the Noble Ones," are
a few of the terms by which they designated
themselves, as we see by the literary works
which have come down to us.
When we come to analyse the hymns, we
find that the poetry of the Rig- Veda deals to
a great extent with the ordinary life of the
Aryans themselves. But, besides the recital
of material facts, these works present us with a
mass of symbolic conceptions. We find in the
Rig-Veda a description of the places where the
hymns were first sung (an invaluable guide in
tracing the progress of the race), stories of
natural phenomena, of the march of the con-
querors through India, in spite of the resistance
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 29
of the aborigines, of birth, marriage, death
and burial ; and a fairly complete account of
the Brahman cultus. We learn that the
primitive Aryans lived under patriarchal rule,
that they did not build towns, but led a
wandering life with their herds of cattle, and
that in times of danger they combined their
forces to repel any common enemy. The
father was the master of the household, his
wife was his property : there was most de-
cidedly no trace of a women's suffrage move-
ment, and there were no 4f rights of man."
The caste system had not developed to a very
large extent when the early poems of the Rig-
Veda were being written, and the head of the
family was likewise its priest.
The form of worship was simple enough.
Two pieces of wood were rubbed together ; a
fire was lighted ; and a sacrifice of malted liquor
and bread was offered up on a rude altar. This
simple ceremony was performed thrice daily
at sunrise, noon, and sunset. The Vedas in-
dicate that for a long time the Aryans possessed
a kind of naturalistic religion which confined
itself to invoking the forces of Nature : in other
words, they were polytheists. Fire was wor-
shipped under the name of Agni (observe the
close connection with the Latin ignis), the sky
30 THE RELIGIONS AND
was adored as Indra (the god of rain), the sun
as Surya, water as Varuna. For the Aryans
the hymn was always a prayer. " It would
appear/' says the great Orientalist, Emile
Burnouf, " that the prayer uttered from their
hearts, of which the hymn was the outward
expression, not only exercised its action on the
variable movements of the rain and winds, but
even accompanied and brought about the most
constant and regulated natural phenomena."
Lafont compares this with the Christian
"rogations," and is not alone in thinking
that they spring from the same belief.
" Our ancestors moulded the forms of the
gods as the workman fashions a piece of iron,"
we read in the Vamadeva, startlingly clear proof,
which the Brahmans afterwards kept out of
sight as much as possible, of the terrestrial and
non-supernatural origin of the gods and the
god-idea. During long centuries, Vedism, to
use the term now generally applied to the
religion of the Vedas, slowly developed into a
more deeply metaphysical faith and finally into
Brahmanism. The great distinction is the
fact that in time it came to be recognised that,
in addition to a number of inferior deities,
there was one supreme god, Brahma, and all
Indian polytheism was sublimated in him.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 31
The Indian mind, however, could not conceive
of a single omnipotent god such as the Semitic
Jehovah, and it was not long before the one
superior Hindoo deity became pantheistic.
Brahma was seen in everything in an idol, in
a tree, in a sword. The one great step had
been taken in the development of Hinduism :
there was one recognised god, Brahma, where
there had formerly been twenty, and the highest
caste, the Brahmans, were his interpreters and
the keepers of his sacred books. With this
conception once definitely established, there
began a magnificent period of development.
From this epoch, the beginnings of which may
safely be placed at 3000 B.C., we have the
splendid poems of the Mahabharata and the
Ramayana ; the lore of centuries, including
the Vedic hymns, was put into written form ;
laws were coded ; the Indian drama was slowly
formed, and a school of lyric poetry arose.
This great literary development was only
possible, of course, when the intellectual power
of the community was concentrated in the
Brahmans, and to some extent also the
warriors. The first two castes, even though
weighed down under the load of a nihilistic
religion, were able to display their creative
faculty in spite of their pessimism, while the
32 THE RELIGIONS AND
lower castes had no right to an opinion on
any subject at all. The Brahmans recognised
clearly enough that, no matter how the lower
classes of a society were " educated " in what
would correspond to a modern board-school,
they were unable, on account of their low
descent (like our own lower classes) to enter
into the lofty spirit of the nobler castes. To a
modern philosophical enquirer, unbiassed by
democratic heresies, this was a right and
proper course to pursue ; for there is no
reason why the children of the working-classes
(the modern serf caste) should be provided
with free schools in which to acquire an ex-
ceedingly superficial knowledge of subjects
that will never be of the slightest use to them
in their journey through the world. The
modern school of continental thought clearly
recognises that the world has only one real
" use " for the serf caste, whether they are
plainly called serfs or disguise themselves as
" noble sons of toil," or " honest workmen,"
and that is that they shall be employed as
the basis of servitude upon which a noble and
aristocratic culture may be founded. The
Brahmans saw this, so did the pre-Platonic
philosophers, and so also did Aristotle. The
final touch of modern anarchy is shown by the
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 33
fact that in the " civilised " countries of the
West the dregs of society are permitted to rule
:he whole community ; for the principle of
government is one man one vote, and it follows
that the uneducated riff-raff must inevitably
outnumber the cultured few. Parasites are
ilways fecund. Little wonder that the better-
educated classes of Indians protest emphatically
igainst the introduction of these revolutionary
r orms of government into their country, and
:hat the Chinese and Japanese look with
ustifiable suspicion on all u foreign devils/'
In dealing with Hinduism or Brahmanism it
,s almost an impossible task to disentangle and
to bring into some sort of order the confused
mass of Indian gods, demons, deified mortals,
household gods, local gods, tribal gods, and so
Dn. Theoretically a Hindoo is one who
believes in the Brahmanic scriptures as ex-
pounded for centuries by the Brahmans. This
teaching was influenced to some extent by
Buddhism and later on by Mohammedanism,
not to speak of the natural changes which one
would expect to find in any religion which had
lasted for from four to five thousand years. It
may be convenient to take the three periods
c
34 THE RELIGIONS AND
into which Hinduism is generally divided, viz.,
Vedic, Epic, and Puranic. What we know of
the first period is learnt from the Vedas, of the
second from the two great epic poems, the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and of the
third from certain theological works known as
Puranas or Tantras. Amongst the numerous
deities referred to in the Vedas may be
mentioned Agni, the god of fire, lightning,
and the sun ; Indra, the god of the firmament ;
Varuna, who corresponds in general to the
Greek Uranus, and Soma, who corresponds to
Bacchus. We also find the Maruts, or winds,
and Ushas, the dawn.
Besides being the god of wine, Soma is also
the name given to the juice of the soma plant.
In the early stages of Vedism this juice seems
to have been the sole sacrifice offered up by
the Aryans, and it has been ingeniously con-
jectured that, having at first been the object
with which the deities were propitiated, it was
afterwards deified itself. Soma is conceived of
as a powerful deity who inspires men to deeds
of arms, as well as being the bestower of health,
and one who assists his worshippers against
their enemies ; witness the Rig-Veda :
This Soma is a god ; he cures
The sharpest ills that man endures.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 35
He heals the sick, the sad he cheers,
He nerves the weak, dispels their fears,
The faint with martial ardour fires,
With lofty thoughts the bard inspires,
The soul from earth to heaven he lifts
So great and wondrous are his gifts. x
While the worship of Soma was associated
chiefly with Bacchanalian feasts, a perusal of
the Vedic hymns shows the high state of
culture at which even the primitive Aryan
settlers in India had arrived, and the researches
into the mysteries of the creation which they
had begun to make. Take, for example, the
hymn from the Rig-Veda addressed to Varuna,
excellently translated by Muir :
He, righteous Lord, the sceptre wields,
Supreme, of universal sway ;
His law both men and gods obey ;
To his decree the haughtiest yields.
He spread the earth and water waste ;
He reared the sky, he bade the sun
His shining circuit daily run ;
In him the worlds are all embraced. . . .
The path of ships across the sea,
A soaring eagle's flight he knows,
The course of every wind that blows,
And all that was or is to be. 2
1 J. Muir : Translations from the Fedas.
2 Muir, //</., p. 20, from Rig-Veda, xxv. 7, 9, 1 1. Cf. Proverbs
xxx. 1 8 ff. : " There are three things which are too wonderful for
me. . . . The way of an eagle in the air ; the way of a serpent upon
a rock ; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea. . . ."
36 THE RELIGIONS AND
To thoughtful men who truth discern,
And deeply things divine explore,
The god reveals his hidden lore ;
But fools -his secrets may not learn. I
Part of the prose form of this has been given
by Petersen, in his selections from the Vedic
Hymns :
Though we break thy law daily, men as we are, O
God Varuna :
Yet give us not over to the deadly stroke of our enemy ;
give us not over to the wrath of our foe.
Varuna knows the way of the birds that fly in the air ;
he knows the way of the ship on the sea : 2
He knows the track of the wide, high, and great wind : 3
he knows them that sit thereon. 4
My prayers go up to him like kine to their pasture-
lands, seeking him whose eyes are over all. 5
Come now and let us talk together : here me call, O
Varuna, and to-day have mercy on me : I am needy, and
call upon thee. 6
Rig- Veda i. 25 (Petersen's ed.).
The same high standard is maintained in the
hymns addressed to Agni, the god of fire :
Great Agni, though thine essence be but one,
Thy forms are three ; as fire, thou blazest here,
As lightning flashest in the atmosphere,
In heaven thou flamest as the golden sun.
'From Rig-Veda 7, Ixi. 5. Cf. Matt. xiii. 11-12, and Prov. xiv. 6 :
" A scorner seeketh wisdom and findeth it not : but knowledge is easy
to him that understandeth."
2 Cf. Song of Solomon, v. 10-11, and Prov. xxx. 19.
3 Cf. St John, iii. 8.
4 C/i 2 Sam., xxii. and Psalms civ. 3.
*Cf. Psalms, xlii. i.
6 Cf. "Come now let us reason together" (Isaiah i. 18 ; Psalms
xl. 17 ; and Psalms Ixxxvi. I.)
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 37
Sprung from the mystic pair, by priestly hands l
In wedlock joined, forth flashes Agni bright ;
But oh, ye heavens and earth, I tell you right
The unnatural child devours the parent brands.
But Agni is a god ; we must not deem
That he can err, or dare to reprehend
His acts, which far our reason's grasp transcend ;
He best can judge what deeds a god beseem. 2
Thou art the cord which stretches to the skies,
The bridge that spans the chasm, profound and vast,
Dividing earth from heaven, o'er which at last
The good shall safely pass to Paradise.
No god, no mortal is stronger than thee, O mighty
Agni : Come, Agni, with the Maruts (Storm-Gods).
Bright, fearful to look upon, strong rulers, devourers of
their foes : Come, Agni, with the Maruts.
Who sit as gods in the sky on the bright vault of
heaven : Come, Agni, with the Maruts.
Rig- Veda, i. 19 ; (Petersen's ed.).
Again, compare the prose and poetic form
of the hymn to Ushas, the Dawn :
Hail, Ushas, daughter of the sky,
Who, borne upon thy shining car,
By ruddy steeds from realms afar,
And ever lightening, drawest nigh :
Thou sweetly smilest, goddess fair,
Disclosing all thy youthful grace,
Thy bosom bright, thy radiant face,
And lustre of thy golden hair. . .
1 This refers to the two pieces of wood from which fire is obtained
when they are rubbed together. In the Vedas they are represented as
husband and wife (Muir's Note).
3 A sentiment which may be commended to all democrats.
38 THE RELIGIONS AND
But closely by the amorous sun
Pursued and vanquished in the race,
Thou soon art locked in his embrace,
And with him blendest into one.
(Muir, Translations from the Vedas, p. 28.)
" Oh, Ushas, rich in blessing, wise and bountiful, accept
the song of thy worshipper : for now thou comest in due
time, goddess ever old, ever young, and bringest with
thee all good things. Shine out, O Dawn, a goddess and
immortal, on thy golden car ; awaken the sweet nature
of the birds : let thy well-managed horses, whose splendour
spreads all around, bring thee, O golden goddess, to us.
The holy goddess has been awakened by the songs of
the sky, and her glory spreads over the fruitful worlds :
the shining Dawn is coming : Agni, go forth to meet her,
and ask for us the wealth which we desire."
Rig-Veda, iii. 6.
The powers of Indra are shown in the
following :
Thou, Indra, art a friend and brother,
A kinsman dear, a father, mother.
Though thou hast troops of friends, yet we
Can boast no other friend than thee. . .
With faith we claim thine aid divine,
For thou art ours and we are thine.
Thou art not deaf though far away,
Thou hearest all, whate'er we pray.
Ibid., pp. 15-16.
The fierce god who, so soon as he was born their chief,
surpassed all the gods in strength, from before whose
breath heaven and earth trembled, he, O men, is Indra :
Who fixed fast the quivering earth, who made the
moving mountains rest, who measured out the wide sky,
who propped up heaven, he, O men, is Indra :
On Whom call heaven and earth, who are joined, and
all enemies, high and low : he, O men, is Indra :
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 39
Heaven and earth bow down before him : at his very
breath the hills are in fear.
Rig-Veda, ii. 12 (Petersen's ed.).
Beyond a doubt, however, the two most
exquisite hymns in Vedic literature are those
dealing with the Origin of Things and the
Death of the First Man, King Yama. The
first hymn, dealing with the creation, probably
marks the beginning of philosophic Vedism,
when the Hindoos not only worshipped the
elementary powers of Nature but were begin-
ning to form conceptions of a Supreme Deity,
who, in addition to having certain attributes
of his own, would be powerful enough to rule
all the other gods.
There then was neither Naught nor Aught,
No air, no sky beyond.
What covered all ? where rested all ?
In watery gulf profound.
Nor death was then, nor deathlessness,
No change of night and day.
That One breathed calmly, self-sustained :
Naught else beyond It lay.
Who knows, who ever told, from whence
This great creation rose ?
No gods had then been born then who
Can e'er the tale disclose ?
Whence sprang this world, and whether framed
By hand divine or no,
Its Lord in Heaven alone can tell
If even He can show. Muir, Ibid,, p. 36.
40 THE RELIGIONS AND
The second poem shows a still later develop-
ment :
To great King Yama homage pay,
Who was the first of men that died,
That crossed the mighty gulf and spied
For mortals out the heavenward way.
No power can ever close the road
Which he to us laid open then,
By which in long procession men
Ascend to his sublime abode.
By it our fathers all have passed ;
And that same path we too shall trace,
And every new succeeding race
Of mortal men, while time shall last . . .
First must each several element
That joined to form thy living frame
Fly to the regions whence it came,
And with its parent source be blent.
Thine eye shall seek the solar orb
Thy life breath to the wind shall fly,
Thy part ethereal to the sky ;
Thine earthly part shall earth absorb.
Thy unborn part shall Agni bright
With his benignant rays illume,
And guide it through the trackless gloom
To yonder sphere of life and light.
Muir, Ibid., p. 32.
The translator compares Euripides (Supp.
532/0 :
'tKoidrov iig rb
' Evravd' awtXQsiv, frvtvpa, fjt,sv vpbs aidtpa,
Tb ffua d' i/s qv,
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 41
( c< But each element of the body has departed
to the quarter whence it came, the breath to
the other, the body itself to the earth.")
After this we come to the period of the
Epics and Puranic philosophy. This period
may be said to witness the early development
of the six orthodox systems of Indian Philo-
sophy, mentioned in a subsequent chapter, and
doubtless also the Bhagavad-Gita, which will
be referred to shortly. This period is chiefly
noted for the rise of two gods to the highest
rank, viz., Vishnu and Siva, who with Brahma
form the Hindoo Tramurit, or Triad. These
three gods are usually represented as one body
with three heads. In the middle is that of
Brahma, at its right of Vishnu, and at its left
that of Siva. The symbol of this triad is the
mystic syllable OM. This is a Sanskrit word
which acquired much importance in the early
development of the Hindoo religion. While
at first simply meaning assent or solemn affirma-
tion, it later became an auspicious word of
prayer which had to be uttered by the teachers
before beginning to read the sacred writings.
At length it came to be looked upon as the
abbreviated method of naming the Hindoo
Trinity, without taking the trouble to repeat
the names of three gods. The syllable was
42 RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES
even adopted by the Buddhists, and forms the
first word of the prayer which is taught to
Buddhist children, but which no one has yet
succeeded in interpreting " Om Mani Padme
hum/'
CHAPTER III
Later Brahmanism The Bhagavad-Gita Krishna
Development of Krishnaism Krishna and the New
Testament Religious system of the Bhagavad-Gita
Chandals Pariahs.
ONE of the most popular books in India, the
Bhagavad-Gita, is read by practically all castes
and creeds of Hindoos ; for it forms the basis
of popular Hinduism modern Hinduism
being a corrupt form of the ancient Vedism,
influenced to some small extent by the cult of
the Buddhists. The word " Bhagavad-Gita "
means " The Song of the Adored One " or the
"Divine Lay/' Bhagavad, "the Adored One,"
being a term applied to Krishna, when he
is identified with the deity hence the expres-
sion " Krishnaism/* which is so often used
when speaking of the faith outlined in the
Bhagavad-Gita. Although nominally a part
of the epic poem, the Mahabharata, there is no
connecting-link between the Bhagavad-Gita
and the other works which go to make up
this long epic. Modern critics are therefore
inclined to believe that it was added at a
relatively late date to give it the authority of
divine inspiration and antiquity. The name of
43
44 THE RELIGIONS AND
the author is not known ; but the book was
probably written or, at all events, parts were
added to it about the first century of our era.
Many of the thoughts and ideas in it are to
be found in the New Testament, from which
some scholars have concluded that the later
additions to the work were taken from the
Christian gospels ; though others, with much
more evidence to justify their views, hold that
parts of the New Testament were borrowed
from the Bhagavad-Gita. Krishna says, for
example : " Whatever thou doest, whatever
thou eatest, whatever thou sacrificest, whatever
thou givest away, whatever mortification thou
performest, do all as if to me" (ix. 27), with
which compare i Cor. x. 31: "Whether
therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye
do, do all to the glory of God." Again,
Krishna says : " I am the beginning, the
middle, the end, the eternal time, the birth,
the death, of all/' Compare this with Christ's
words in Revelation i. 17-18 : "And when I
saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he
laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me,
Fear not ; I am the first and the last : I am he
that liveth and was dead ; and, behold, I am
alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys
of hell and of death/' c< Be not sorrowful ;
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 45
from all thy sins I will deliver thee," says
Krishna. " Be of good cheer ; thy sins be
forgiven thee," we read in Matt. ix. 2.
Then, too, the transfiguration of Krishna in
the eleventh book of the Bhagavad-Gita is
described in terms not unlike those used in
connection with the Transfiguration of Christ.
Another remarkable coincidence is Krishna's
description of Heaven : " In which neither sun
nor moon has need to shine ; for all the lustre
it possesses is mine." The heaven described
in Revelation xxi. 23, is a city which "had no
need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine
in it ; for the glory of God did lighten it."
Since the main theme of the Mahabharata is
the war between the Indian tribes of the Kurus
and Pandus, the author of the Bhagavad-Gita,
in order that his poem might appear to form
an integral part of the great epic, began it with
a description of the battlefield and the warriors.
It is worthy of note that the scene of the
struggle is laid at Kurukshetra, east of the
Jumna, and in the upper part of the district
called Doab, the capital of which was
Hastinapura, identified with the modern Delhi
in other words, it was at that time one of
the strongholds of Buddhism. The opening
scene of the poem is the battlefield, and long
46 THE RELIGIONS AND
colloquies take place among the leaders to put
the reader in possession of the rather compli-
cated births, deaths and intermarriages leading
up to the main theme. Another New Testa-
ment analogy occurs in these preliminary
speeches ; for some Indian Herod is described
as having put to death all the first-born in a
certain district. Then the two principal
personages are introduced, Krishna and his
disciple Arjuna, and their subsequent dialogue
develops the conception of the supreme deity,
Krishna himself being, broadly speaking, the
god turned man who created the world.
Krishna, according to the Bhagavad-Gita, is
the supreme god. He is above all other gods,
such as Brahma, Vishnu and Siva : further, he
is the <{ only existence, the only real substance
of ail things/' " I am the cause of the pro-
duction and destruction of the whole uni-
verse." " There exists nothing superior to
me." "I am the origin of all gods, the
great Lord of the world without beginning/*
" I am the eternal seed of all things that
exist." " I have established and continue to
establish the universe by one portion of myself." 1
On the other hand the Vishnu-Purana, one
1 I quote these senten from Maurice Phillips' The Bhagavad-Gita.
Madras, 1893.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 47
of the sacred books of the Hindoos, represents
Krishna from two aspects : (i) as a warrior-
king ; and (2) as the incarnation of Vishnu,
although in the course of the book Krishna
explicitly claims superiority over Vishnu. As
a boy, it appears, Krishna was very unruly, and
many of his pranks remind us of the story of
Hercules and the serpents. Later on he urged
the cowherds to leave off worshipping Indra,
the god of rain, and to worship the cows which
supported them, instead of the grass on the
mountain that supported the cows. Angered
at this, Indra opened the gates of heaven and
would have deluged the whole earth, had not
Krishna lifted the mountain, Govardhana, and
held it above his head like an umbrella. Later
events in his career include his marriage with
16,000 women, by whom he had 180,000 sons,
an attack on the gods, whom he defeated, and
the destruction of the city of Benares, after
which latter feat he was accidentally shot dead
by a hunter in somewhat similar circumstances
to those in which William Rufus met his fate.
Such was Krishna the warrior, and in the
minds of the devout he is always distinguished
by the qualities of Vishnu, which, it may be
added, was formerly one of the names of the sun.
According to the Bhagavad-Gita, the
48 THE RELIGIONS AND
world is not a creation, but was produced
by Krishna from his own nature (Prakriti).
He says : " All things exist in me. Supported
by my material essence, I cause this entire
system of existing things to emanate again and
again, without any power of their own, by the
power of this material essence. When a
devotee recognises the individual essence of
everything to be comprehended in one and to
be only an emanation from it, he the^- attains
to the supreme spirit. Earth, water, fire,
wind, ether, heart, intellect, and egoism ; into
these eight components is my nature (Prakriti)
divided. This nature is an inferior one ; but
learn my superior nature other than this, of a
vital kind, by means of which this universe is
sustained. Understand that all things are pro-
duced from this latter, or higher, nature." In
its complete development the doctrine adds
fifteen component parts to the eight mentioned
above, designating the inferior nature as
avyakta, or non-developed matter, which is
turned into vyakta, or developed matter, by
the superior nature.
Such is a brief outline of the explanation of
the origin of the world given in the Bhagavad-
Gita, but it must be remembered that almost
as many Indian commentaries have been written
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 49
upon it as on the New Testament, and to as
little purpose.
Man, according to this Hindoo Bible, is com-
posed of an eternal immortal soul, an emanation
from Krishna's superior nature, and of a
mortal and perishable body, derived from
Krishna's inferior nature. The soul is subject
to transmigration from body to body (as in
Buddhism or Brahmanism) until it is finally
absorbed again into Krishna's " essence/' which,
of course, is but another conception of Nirvana.
The only real existence is spirit, which is
eternal. What we call matter does not exist
at all ; it is only the delusion of Maya, the
mystic power by which Krishna, the supreme
god, has created an ephemeral world, which
seems to be but is not. " Krishna " is indestruc-
tible. "As a man abandons worn-out clothes
and dons new ones, so the soul leaves worn-
out bodies and enters other new ones."
Nature (Prakriti) is composed of three
qualities (Gunas), goodness, passion, and ignor-
ance (Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas), and the soul,
being united with nature, comes under their
influence. Hence these qualities mentioned
unite the soul with illusion and bring about
transmigration. And God (Krishna) is respon-
sible for all our actions, good or evil ; for "all
50 THE RELIGIONS AND
qualities (Gunas), whether goodness (Sattwa),
passion (Rajas), or ignorance and darkness
(Tamas) proceed from me." Thus is the
question of free-will disposed of.
The caste system is divine according to the
teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita ; u Krishna is
the creator of the institution of the four castes
according to the distribution of natural quali-
ties and actions. The Brahman has a pre-
ponderance of goodness, the Kshatriya (warrior)
of goodness and passion, the Vaisya (i.e., the
merchant and husbandmen-class) of passion
and darkness (i.e., ignorance), and the Sudra
of darkness alone." The actions of the first
are knowledge, prayer, inspiration, and self-
restraint ; of the second, sovereignty and pro-
tection of the people ; of the third, commerce
and agriculture ; of the fourth, servitude. 1
Such is the system, admirable at all events in
theory, of Indian society. The main objection
made to it by the Christian missionaries is a
characteristic one ; that it is contrary to the
" brotherhood of man " and this, in the eyes
of a modern thinker, is its chief advantage
and salient merit. Men are not born equal,
they do not grow up equal, they never become
1 Maurice Phillips has given the most concise summary of this
section of the Bhagavad-Gita in his book already quoted.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 51
equal ; and a religious system which is based
on the equality of mankind is naturally founded
on an essential fallacy from the very beginning.
To the author of the Bhagavad-Gita,
salvation is the release of the soul from
the bond of illusory matter and from the
influence of the three " qualities'* mentioned
above. The best way of effecting this release
is by meditation ; a man is to go about his
business as usual, but at the same time he
should constantly meditate on the supreme
being until he is fit to be absorbed into him.
The writer of the Bhagavad-Gita endeavoured
to reconcile the ascetic Inanayoga of Kapila and
the Yoga of Patanjali with action, for the
nature of asceticism proved so attractive to the
Hindoos that everyone wanted to become an
ascetic and thus society for a time threatened
to be entirely disorganised. The Bhagavad-
Gita shows that it is impossible for a man to
live without action, and imposed upon all the
castes the obligation of regularly performing
their prescribed duties, while at the same time
renouncing the world as much as possible. To
this end the passions should be subdued, and
certain rules are given to show how this may
be done : " A devotee should always exercise
himself, remaining in seclusion and solitude,
52 THE RELIGIONS AND
restraining his thoughts, without indulging
hopes and without possessions, keeping a couch
for himself in an undefiled spot, not too lofty
or too low. Then, fixing his heart on the
supreme being, restraining his thoughts, senses,
and actions, he should practise devotion for
the purification of his soul. Holding his body,
head, and neck, all even and immovable, firmly
seated ; regarding only the tip of his nose,
and not looking round in different directions,
the devotee should remain quiet with passion-
less soul, free from anxiety, and intent on me
[Krishna]. . . . Hear my supreme words,
most sacred of all. Thou art very much be-
loved of me, and therefore I will tell thee what is
good. Place thy affections on me, worship me,
sacrifice to me, and reverence me. Seek me as
thy refuge, and I will deliver thee from all sin.*'
Pantheism, of course, is an essential doctrine
of this book. All things are emanations from
God (Krishna) : therefore, no matter what things
may be worshipped, he is worshipped in them.
The teachings, however, apply only to the four
castes mentioned, and leave altogether out of
account the Pariahs and Chandalas, the outcasts
who are altogether beyond the pale. 1
1 Chandal, or Chandala, is the name of a caste which was said to
have sprung from the union of a Sudra man and a Brahma woman.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 53
Such, then, is a condensed summary of the
remarkable Bhagavad-Gita. We may compare
it to some extent with the Koran : it was de-
vised in a fairly later period of religious history
to satisfy the pressing needs of a certain large
class of people ; it clearly originated in an aristo-
cratic source, as did Mohammed ; written by a
man, it was ascribed to, and believed to be
the work of, God ; and many of its texts and
incidents are taken from older works. But
the analogy will not go much further. The
Bhagavad-Gita is nihilistic, and the faith out-
lined in it suffers from the lack of a single
concentrated deity to superintend a host of
minor gods. Then again the magnificent
fighting spirit of Mohammed is absent, and
the glowing Arabic frenzy of the Prophet of
Allah is ill-compensated by transmigration,
Nirvana, and finally extinction.
As this was regarded as the worst possible form of pollution, all the
descendants of the couple were regarded as outcasts. The Lawg of
Manu refer to the Chandal as the lowest of mankind, and ordain that
he shall live strictly apart from the four regular castes, his clothes to be
those of dead men, and his sole possession dogs and asses. In some
places, e.g., Bengal, the Chandal is employed for labouring work, but
sleeps and eats by himself, while they are also to be found as palanquin-
bearers and gardeners. Pariah is a corruption of the Tamil word
Paraiyan, applied to a man practically corresponding to the Sanskrit
Chandal. The original occupation of these outcasts was that of beating
the parai, or tom-tom, at funerals or other solemn occasions. Chandal
must not be confused with Chandel, the name of a Rajput tribe, with
Chandeli, a fine sort of cotton cloth, or with Chandla, a small ornament
usually worn on the forehead,
CHAPTER IV
The rise of Buddhism Religion in theory and practice
Birth of the Buddha His early years Studies and
temptations His system of propagating the faith
Illness and Death Character of the Buddha Euro-
pean Influence of Buddhism
THE position of the Brahman domination about
600 B.C. may not unreasonably be compared to
that of the Roman Empire in the first century
of our era. A superabundance of energy ex-
tending over a long period of time seemed to
have spent itself, and an age of mediocrity had
set in. Life had become more complicated.
The beautiful nature-worship of a pagan time
had given place to an intricate system of gods.
Faith had yielded to cynicism ; an age of
creative minds was replaced by an age of com-
mentators ; grammarians and pedants had taken
the place of poets and dramatists. The spiritual
rout of the Roman Empire was completed by
the introduction of Christianity, which, acting
up to its essential principle of upholding the
weak against the strong, overawed the relatively
few wealthy and energetic Roman nobles who
remained by solemn tales of their eternal dam-
54
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 55
nation in the world to come. Women were
little by little exalted to the level of men, the
slave was as good as his master, the wretched
cripple, the imbecile, the dunce, were equal in
the sight of God to the strong, the mentally
and physically creative, the energetic, and the
powerful.
A somewhat similar narcotic was injected
into Brahmanism in the sixth century B.C.
True, the Brahman and the Roman noble dif-
fered in their vitality, their creativeness, and
their outlook on life to an almost infinite extent ;
but the Indian system of faith had at all events
one enormous advantage : it upheld the caste
system under the severest penalties. But for
the religious poison which caused the highest
caste to look forward to extinction, with the
most profound pessimism, as the final boon,
the last refuge, it might have been recorded to
the credit of the Brahmans that they continu-
ously upheld a society which was almost perfect
in its organisation. We have the broad basis
of servitude, upon which, as Nietzsche justly
remarks, all culture must be founded. Next
in the scale come the merchants, farmers, and
skilled workmen. Then, still ascending, we
have the kings and warriors, the ruling and the
military caste. But, instead of the highest
56 THE RELIGIONS AND
caste of all being creative, constantly engaged
in forming fresh moral values, as Nietzsche
suggests in Der Antichrist, we have a caste
which commits the greatest of crimes by deny-
ing life not merely life on this earth, in
accordance with Christian moral values ; but
all life. There is to be no future existence
except in the form of transmigration, and, if
our deeds in our present state are " good," we
may expect to go through life again in a" better
form ; but the ultimate aim held out by the
Brahman is utter extinction. We have no
soul. We have nothing to look forward to.
Life is a burden which it is not worth while to
bear ; and our sole aim should be to get entirely
rid of it as quickly as we possibly can.
No religion, of course, works out exactly in
practice as it does in theory ; and in spite of
all this depressing teaching battles were fought,
literature of a sort was gradually formed, and
merchants cheated one another just as they
do in Christian countries at the present day.
Kings and warriors kept clients and followers,
and the Brahman himself was often a welcome
guest at the table of the great man belonging
to the caste immediately beneath him. Certain
religious rites had been invented, which, though
not obligatory, were held to be efficacious in
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 57
securing the Hindoo's speedy annihilation.
These ceremonies necessitated the presence of
representatives of the priestly caste, and, if we
may trust the commentators on the Vedas,
they were not performed without a series of
feasts, extending, in some cases, over three
weeks, or without sums of money changing
hands. (The analogy in the Roman Catholic
religion of paying for masses, which, though
not essential, are desirable in order that release
from Purgatory may be secured sooner than
would otherwise be the case, will at once occur
to the reader.) Less elaborate rites were
apportioned to the merchant class ; and thus
for thousands of years the natural vitality of
the race, due, in the first instance to the warrior
caste, enabled the development of the tribe to
be carried on for many generations. The
seizure of the supreme power by the Brahmans,
however, gradually checked this development
in the course of ages, and it wanted but the
overthrow of the caste system to degrade
Brahmanism to as low a level as it was possible
for it to reach. An assailant of the old order
of things was soon destined to appear.
One of the ruling chieftains of the numerous
tribes into which the Aryans were now split
up was the Rajah Suddhodana. His people,
58 THE RELIGIONS AND
known as the Sakyas, occupied the district of
Kapilavastu, not far from Benares. The two
principal wives of the Rajah, both of whom
were the daughters of a neighbouring
chieftain, were long thought to be barren ;
but the elder sister, Mahamaya, when just over
forty years of age, bore her husband a son.
It is related that she was on her way to her
parents' home, where she wished to give birth to
the child, when, as the party halted on the way
under the shade of some trees, her son, the
future Buddha, and deadly opponent of the
Brahmans, unexpectedly came into the world
that world and life which he afterwards came
to look upon with loathing and contempt, and
from which, by diligent study and learning, he
endeavoured to save his own and succeeding
generations.
The Lalita-Vistara, an old Sanskrit work
containing an account of Buddha's life, gives
a long list of the qualities of the teacher's
mother ; but these may merely form part of
the legends which grew up around his name a
few years after his death. " The ravishing
wife of Suddhodana," so begins the narrative,
" is one of a thousand, for she has attained per-
fection. Bewitching the hearts of all who see
her, like some queen of an illusive fairyland,
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 59
she is known as Mahamaya or Maya- Devi, the
queen of illusion. Her beauty is perfect, like
that of a child of the gods ; the shape of her
body is faultless. She is carried away by
affection, and at times aroused with anger ;
but throughout she remains ever amiable,
sweet, just, and good. Modest and chaste,
she observes the Law. She exhibits neither
pride nor frivolity ; lying and deceit are un-
known to her. The faults that may easily be
found in other women do not exist in her.
She practises the penances called for by the
Law. With the consent of the king, she has
obtained the privilege of not submitting to
sexual intercourse with him for the period of
thirty-two months. . . . No man can look
upon this woman with amorous desire ; and on
account of the good works of the queen the
great family of the king continues to prosper."
The qualities ascribed to the mother of
Buddha may be compared by the curious with
those ascribed five centuries later to the Virgin
Mary, and for purposes of comparison a few of
the other legends which were circulated con-
cerning the Buddha from time to time are well
worth giving. One tradition states that the
queen died seven days after having given birth
to the child, " For alas ! having once been the
60 THE RELIGIONS AND
primary dwelling-place of the Buddha, the
good queen's body was too sacred a place to
bear another human burden on any future
occasion." The young prince was said to be
provided with the thirty-two characteristics of
a great man, and with the eighty secondary
characteristics. A few of these are chronicled
m the Lalita-Fistara. " The young Siddhartha
possesses a large skull. His forehead is broad,
his eyes dark. His forty teeth are equal and
beautifully white, his skin is fine and of the
colour of gold. His limbs are like those of
Ainaya, the king of the gazelles ; his hands
and feet are small and delicate. His head is
well shaped ; his hair black and curly."
Other legends, obviously inventions based on
some greatly exaggerated truth, inform us
that the Buddha was born with a full set of
teeth, and that he spoke from his mother's
womb seven days before birth.
The child's family name was Gautama, by
which the saint was usually known in his life-
time, the name Siddhartha mentioned in the
tradition given above being prefixed by the
family. We also find him referred to as Sakya-
muni, from the tribe over which his father
ruled. When nineteen years of age Gautama
married his cousin Yasodhara, and for several
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 61
years, in the intervals of deep studies, lived the
customary life of pleasure usually associated
in the western mind with Oriental princes.
Then we come to the well-known anecdote
concerning the awakening of his religious
instinct. We learn that, in his thirtieth year,
as he was being driven through his estates, he
caught sight of an infirm man bent down by
extreme old age. On another occasion, soon
afterwards, he beheld a man who was suffering
from some loathsome disease, and a few
months later his attention was drawn to the
spectacle of a decomposing corpse. On each
occasion his charioteer, a man named Channa,
who seems to have been something of a
lugubrious philosopher, told him that this was
the fate of all living things. Some weeks after
having seen the corpse, it is said, he met with
an ascetic, who explained to him the ascetic
philosophy of the Brahmans.
There is a certain amount of variation in
these anecdotes, numbers of which were invented
and circulated about the Buddha from time to
time. A few chronicles, for example, add that
on the three occasions mentioned above it
was really an angel who appeared to Gautama
in the guise of an old man, a corpse, etc.
The general trend of such stories, however, is
62 THE RELIGIONS AND
sufficient to show that, when about twenty-
nine or thirty years of age, Gautama's mind
was suddenly, or, it may be, gradually,
awakened to the influence of religion. When
bathing in the river after an earnest conversa-
tion with the ascetic Brahman, news was
brought to him that his wife had given birth
to a son, and he is said to have muttered
something about having now a stronger bond
to break. During the remainder of the evening
he found himself obliged to take part in the
rejoicings to which the event gave rise ; but
at midnight, having taken a final look at his
wife and child, he ordered Channa to saddle
his horse. Then, with his charioteer as his sole
companion, he left his palace, saying, it is
related, that he would not return until he had
become the Buddha i.e., the enlightened one.
This flight is chronicled as having taken place
in midsummer.
The next event recorded of Gautama is one
which cannot fail to remind us of a somewhat
similar incident in the New Testament. The
Tempter, Mara, appears to him and urges him,
with many blandishments and promises, to
return. Although the attempt fails, Mara
consoles himself with the thought that he will
obtain complete control over the prince when
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 63
the latter is seized with some sensual feeling or
angry wish. On the following morning a halt
was made on the bank of the Anoma, and here
the prince cut off his flowing hair one indica-
tion of his high rank and took off his orna-
ments, sending them back to his father's palace
in charge of his servant Channa, together with
his horse. A shrine was afterwards erected at
this spot. A visit to two Brahman teachers,
Alara and Udraka, followed, and when Gautama,
in the course of the seven years prescribed by
the custom of the period, had learnt all that
was known about Hindoo philosophy, he re-
tired to the jungle of Uruvela in the Vindhya
mountains and led the life of a strict ascetic
for six years. So severe was the treatment he
meted out to himself that his fame as an ascetic
spread " like the sound of a huge bell suspended
in the belfry of heaven." This led to a break-
down, and for some time the teacher felt con-
strained to live more rationally.
And now came Gautama's great period of
temptation. It lasted less than twenty-four
hours ; but the whole event has become almost
obliterated under a heap of legends and incred-
ible stories. Briefly, Gautama seems to have
reasoned with himself in an endeavour to weigh
what he had given up, what he had gained by
64 THE RELIGIONS AND
it, and whether the one balanced the other.
He had lost home, wife, child, wealth, princely
rank ; but, although he had almost killed
himself by severe penance, deep studies, and
intense thinking, he had not yet attained to
the wisdom which raised man above the gods.
Even five young disciples who had joined him
in the jungle left him when his health broke
down. The Brahman philosophy had taught
him that everything the earth itself, and every
man and animal on it carried within itself
the germs of bitterness and impermanency ; but
now he felt the want of the power and comforts
he had given up, and he began to doubt the
value of what he had actually accomplished.
All this meditation took place on the banks of
the Nairanjara, under a tree which was known
long afterwards as the sacred Bo tree, or tree
of wisdom. As the sun was setting, how-
ever, the religious instinct of the man pre-
vailed, and he decided against the joys of the
earth.
Henceforth Gautama's way of life was
definitely established : when he rose he was
the Buddha, the Illuminated ; and it was now
his task to spread among the rest of mankind
the happiness he had acquired. If the traditions
recorded in the Buddhist writings can be trusted,
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 65
Gautama was at this period a little over forty
years of age.
As might have been expected, a crop of
legends grew up around the subject of the
temptation to which the Buddha had been
exposed under the Bo tree ; and Mara, the
supreme tempter, was said to have made
several final efforts to seduce him from his
high ideal. This led to as great an explosion
of wrath as a Buddhist could be expected to
reach. " Soon shall I vanquish thee ! " cries
the saint ; " the passions are thy first army, dis-
content the second, hunger and thirst the third,
avarice the fourth. Idleness and indolence form
the fifth ; fear is the sixth, doubt the seventh,
anger and hypocrisy the eighth. Ambition
and praise, the admiration of men, falsely-
acquired renown, glorification of self and de-
preciation of others : all these combine to form
the allied forces of the demon, and this is thine
army that conquers the world. But I will
crush it by means of wisdom, as a lump of clay
crumbles to pieces when washed by the rolling
stream."
Having tried all other means in vain, Mara
as a last resort sends a bevy of young women,
ideally beautiful, to surround the saint and
tempt his virtue, in the hope that, as Gautama
66 THE RELIGIONS AND
must be greatly weakened in body and mind
by long fasting and meditation, he will yield
to feminine charms when all other means of
temptation have proved unavailing. The
Lalita-Vistara describes at almost wearisome
length the beauty of the nymphs, the songs
they sing, their dances, and the calm words
in which the saint replies to them. " Ah !
between griefs and passions the difference is
not great, and the passions are at the roots
of all the griefs which little by little destroy
contemplation, that supernatural power. Im-
possible, say the sages, to satisfy one's desire
for women. But I, by means of wisdom, can
satisfy this desire in myself and others. The
passions, left to themselves, go on increasing,
like the thirst of a man who has drunk salt
water, and a man who gives himself up to
them is useful neither to himself nor to
others.''
Heedless of the sage's refusal to yield to
them, the nymphs continue their song in
praise of lust. " What man is there who
could refuse to be tempted by so much
beauty? Behold our long hair, perfumed
by the sweetest scents, our dark eyes, our
beautiful teeth, our ornaments of gold . . ."
But the saint interrupts : " The passions
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 67
are inconstant and impermanent, like the
drop of dew on a blade of grass. Your
bodies, beautiful to you, are in my sight
unclean and impure, soon to be eaten by
worms, filled with grief: while wisdom will
assure me all that imperishable dignity held
in reverence by the wise."
The end of this temptation is spoken of in
the LaHta-Vistara,) in the very words used by
the Buddha himself to his disciple, Ananda.
" Since it was impossible for Mara to tempt
me with beautiful women, he endeavoured
to make me stray from my path by appearing
himself in a different form, and trying to
make me believe that I had already entered
into Nirvana. Standing upright beside me,
Ananda, Mara spoke thus : ' Now, O sublime
one, enter into Nirvana ! Now has Nirvana
come to thee, thou perfect one.' But when
I heard these words, O Ananda, I answered :
( I will not enter into Nirvana, O Mara, until
1 have gained disciples for myself, and wise
monks, who will gradually come to understand
my doctrine, and who will be able to spread
and propagate in distant lands what they have
heard from the lips of their master. Then,
O tempter, will I enter into Nirvana, but not
before.' "
68 THE RELIGIONS AND
After the departure of the angry Mara, the
Buddha fell into a reverie on the subject of
penance, and was not comforted until the
archangel Brahma came and explained away
his doubts. We learn, at all events, that he
ever afterwards declared to his disciples and
followers that such great self-mortification
as he had passed through was unnecessary,
and that extreme penance was of but little
value. Having fasted in the neighbourhood
of the Bo tree for seven days and nights,
his wants being supplied by the angel Brahma,
the Buddha set out to preach his gospel. As
might naturally be expected, he met with
but poor success at first, but neither the ill-
concealed contempt of his former disciples
nor the scoffing of his old acquaintances was
sufficient to damp his prophetic ardour.
Having spent some time near Benares and
gathered around him fifty or sixty followers,
the Buddha fell in with the five disciples who
had accompanied him for some time in the
jungle. They now rejoined him, with many
protestations of devotion, and were selected,
together with a few others, to travel through
different parts of the country and spread the
new teaching. This selection and distribution
of disciples was a plan which the Buddha
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 69
adopted every year, a certain number of the
more advanced and intelligent pupils being
chosen, specially instructed, and despatched
as missionaries to distant towns and provinces.
After the Buddha had spent a year or two
in teaching his new doctrine, it came to the
ears of his father the Rajah Suddhodana, that
his son had forsaken his ascetic life to become
a teacher. He therefore sent for the former
prince and begged him to return home. An
affecting interview took place on the outskirts
of Kapilavastu between Gautama and the
various members of his family ; but it ended
in the teacher's starting to beg his bread as
usual, in accordance with the custom he had
laid down for himself. Ashamed of this, the
Rajah urgently begged his son to come to
the palace, if only to see his wife and child.
Apparently this wish was acceded to, and
we learn that a pathetic scene took place
between Gautama and his wife. The latter,
it seems, long afterwards became one of the
Buddhist nuns when the founder of the religion
was persuaded, somewhat against his own views,
to establish such an order for females.
We do not possess very complete records of
what happened at the palace after Gautama's
return ; nor, indeed, so far as the development
70 THE RELIGIONS AND
of his faith is concerned, is this of very great
importance. It would appear that he took
full advantage of the liberty offered him to
make further converts, including in the
number his own son. This greatly distressed
his father, who thus saw himself shorn of any
hope of a successor to the throne. By way of
securing other families from a similar calamity,
he obtained an assurance from the Buddha
that in future no young person would be
admitted to membership of the society without
the consent of his parents.
From this time forward, unfortunately, we
have no very connected accounts concerning
the future career of the teacher. Several
alleged sayings of his have been recorded, and
there are numerous anecdotes about him ; but
it is now difficult, after the lapse of twenty-
four centuries, to distinguish the true from the
false, except in a very few cases. These
confused accounts, however, grow clearer when
we come to the last few weeks of the Buddha's
life, though even then little is reported beyond
the bare facts. When nearly eighty-two years
old (about 420 B.C.), he set out from Pawa to
travel to Kusinagara, 120 miles to the north-
west of Benares. Several stoppages had to be
made on the way, owing to the teacher's
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 71
declining health, and it was some days before
the River Hiranyavati, close to their destina-
tion, was reached. Here the party rested
again, and Gautama had a long conversation
with his disciple Ananda regarding certain
rules to be observed by the Society of
Buddhists. In the course of this conversation,
however, Ananda observed that a brilliant
light seemed to be surrounding his master,
and a garment of golden cloth offered earlier
in the day by another fervent disciple of the
Buddha seemed to lose colour by comparison.
Astonished, Ananda referred to the phen-
omenon, and the sage said quietly : " What
you observe is right and proper, Ananda.
The Buddha is twice transfigured in his earthly
career : once on the evening of the day he
attains supremest wisdom, and a second time
in the night when he enters into eternal peace.
And it is now, Ananda, in the third hour of
the night, that the Buddha is going to enter
into eternal peace/' During the night, as
the teacher lay dying, celestial hymns were
heard from afar, and strange forms were
visible in the heavens. At the last moment
Gautama summoned his disciples, and, finding
they had no further questions to ask him, he
uttered the words : " Always remember what I
72 THE RELIGIONS AND
have told you ; everything that is born is
perishable. Endeavour, therefore, to act in
such a way as to merit deliverance." These
were his last words. When Ananda softly
approached the couch to see whether his master
slept or lay awake, he found that the Buddha
" had fallen into the profound ecstasy of the
elect from which no man returns or is born
again : no, not one."
Gautama the Buddha was a man of an un-
usually high order of intellect, but his goodness
and charity, as Lafont and others have pointed
out, far outweighed his merely intellectual
qualities. His long years of study and medi-
tation led him to the conclusion that penance
was useless and that science was available only
to a few select minds. Then, with the object
of setting common mortals on the road to
" salvation " (in the Buddhist sense of this
word, i.e., Nirvana, or utter extinction), and of
sparing them as much as possible from the
sufferings which are necessarily inflicted by life
in this world (or in our next existence after
our reincarnation), he established his system of
morality on the basis of a material life ; the
repression of the senses, the purity of body
and "soul," and a spirit of universal charity,
developing human sensitiveness to the extent
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 73
of making his followers respect the lives of
even the most insignificant animals because,
of course, even a mouse or a flea might once
have been a fellow-creature, reincarnated in
this form owing to his misdeeds in a former
life. If, therefore, we do not find the meta-
physics of Buddhism developed to the same
extent as the metaphysics of Brahmanism, or
even of Christianity, we must remember that
this is not due to insusceptibility of develop-
ment, but merely because the founder of the
Buddhist faith paid more attention to certain
other qualities which he deemed of greater
benefit for the human race.
Nor does Buddha think it necessary to
concern himself about the Cosmos : it is not
worth while, in his opinion, trying to find
out how the world came into existence. He
would sternly restrict himself to an explanation
of his belief. a My law is a law of mercy for
all. And what kind of a law is this? It is a
law under which the very beggars can become
saints." (A far cry, this, from the stringent,
aristocratic caste system of the Brahmans, who
refused to be polluted with the lower orders !)
But even the beggar must first show himself
capable of self-control. " Let him not despise
what he has received, or ever envy others : a
74 THE RELIGIONS AND
mendicant who envies others does not obtain
peace of mind." ' < f For self is the law of self,
self is the refuge of self; therefore curb thy-
self as a merchant curbs his horse." 2
At other times the Buddha's disciples
torment him with questions about eternity
and definitions of the ego. But he refuses to
be drawn. " Why has not the Buddha taught
his followers whether the world is finite or
infinite, whether the saint continues to live or
not in the Beyond ? Because the mere know-
ledge of these things does not lead to any
progress in sanctity, because such knowledge
does not necessarily conduce to spiritual peace
and illumination. But the Buddha does teach
that which leads to spiritual peace and illumina-
tion : he teaches the truth about pain, the truth
about the origin of pain, about the suppression
of pain, about the path leading to the suppres-
sion of pain. Hence, let that which has not
been revealed by me remain unrevealed, and
that which has been revealed by me remain
revealed ! " No explanation of the ego can
be had from him. " The mind has come into
existence by means of unfathomable mystery,
and it is useless to try to discover what this
1 Dhammapadha : Deal's translation, p. 22.
2 Ibid., page 24.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 75
mystery is. The monk who is striving to
secure the safety of his soul has something else
to do."
Indeed, this attitude of the teacher partly
serves to explain the success of Buddhism
among different races. Gautama's aim was
to found a practical morality on the basis of
material existence and self-control. There are
many differences in the principles upon which
professedly Buddhistic nations have erected
their own religious structure ; but in all cases
the faith seems to have exercised a remarkable
influence for good in the populations among
which it penetrated. The activity of the
Buddhist missionaries has only within recent
years become properly known. Not long after
the master's death earnest disciples were
spreading the faith in Thibet. In a generation
or two converts had been made in Ceylon,
Burmah, China, and Tartary. In later years
the Chinese carried the new doctrine into
Japan, where, as we shall see, it absorbed the
old gods. The activity of these enthusiasts,
however, did not end here. With all the zeal
and none of the intolerance displayed by the
Jesuits after the founding of their order, the
Buddhist disciples spread over the known
world. The faith was propagated so far away
76 RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES
as Egypt and Abyssinia ; and Leon de Rosny,
Lafont, and other eminent authorities, are
inclined to hold that traces of it were found
long afterwards among the natives of Mexico.
Places so far apart as Australia and the Balkans
appear to have fallen under the influence of
the Buddhists even so early as the time when
Pontius Pilate was just setting out for the East
to take up his appointment as fifth Roman
Procurator of Judaea and Samaria.
If the metaphysical part of Buddhism,
however, was not fully developed by the
founder, there is no doubt that it has exercised
a powerful influence on men of different
calibre. The " intellectuals " of Siam and
Japan look upon Buddhism at the present day
as a philosophy rather than as a faith ; but the
best-known example of intellectual Buddhism
is, of course, the German philosopher, Arthur
Schopenhauer.
CHAPTER V
Buddhism continued. Nirvana Transmigration
Commandments for monks and laymen Relics of
Buddha Distinction between Buddhism and
Christianity King Asoka the Buddhist The Edicts
of Asoka Bureaucracy foiled Buddhistic writings.
ACCORDING to the Buddhist teaching, every-
thing corporeal is material. It is, therefore,
non-permanent, carrying within itself as it does
the elements of dissolution. So long as man is
linked to the material world he will be possessed
of constantly unsatisfied desires, weariness,
pain, and care. All this cannot be overcome
by a form of penance which merely punishes
the body ; it is a man's evil heart which binds
him down to this bodily life. Nor yet does it
make much difference if he endeavours to
follow a virtuous path ; for a certain proportion
of evil is Jeft, and this fact itself ensures that
a virtuous man will merely lead a higher form
of material life after his re-birth. What is
necessary is to free man entirely from all evil,
which alone will enable him to attain Nirvana,
i.e., complete annihilation. The bases of the
Buddhist creed, drawn up by the founder
himself, are contained in the " four great
77
78 THE RELIGIONS AND
truths/' which have been summed up by
various authorities :
(1) Misery invariably accompanies existence.
(2) Every type of existence, whether of
man or of animals, results from
passion or desire.
(3) There is no freedom from existence
but by the annihilation of desire.
(4) Desire may be destroyed by following
the " eight paths " leading to
Nirvana.
These u eight" paths are right views, right
feelings, right words, right behaviour, right
exertion, right obedience, right memory, and
right meditation. The natural state of the
individual, as has been mentioned a few pages
before, is to be born again and again, each
time in a fresh incarnation, but seeing that
misery invariably accompanies all existence,
the great object of the individual should be
to act in such a way in his present life as not
to necessitate his being born again. The only
thing permanent is the individual's " karma,"
i.e., his actions and thoughts in this life, which
decide which form his incarnation shall take
in his future existence. This notion, which
is common to Brahraanism and Buddhism,
though greatly accentuated in the latter faith,
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 79
may well explain to us why Eastern peoples, like
theHindoos,Chinese,and Japanese, showso little
fear of death and set so little value upon life ; for
they cherish the belief that the soul, if taken
away from its present dwelling, will at once find
another, and there is always the possibility that
the new one will be better than the old.
When developing these eight theoretical
paths to Nirvana into a set of precepts appli-
cable to everyday life, the Buddha looked upon
men as being divided into two classes, the
monks and teachers (Sramanas) and the laymen
engaged in ordinary employment. Although
the latter have too many ties to life to secure
emancipation from it at the end of their
present existence, there are nevertheless certain
rules which are binding upon them as well
as upon the monks. They may not kill, steal,
lie, commit adultery, or become intoxicated.
The monks, in addition to obeying these five
commandments, must bear in mind five others :
to abstain from all food after midday, from
songs and dances, etc., from personal adorn-
ments, from luxurious couches, and from ac-
cepting presents of gold and silver for their
personal use. There are also many severe
monastic rules. The Buddhist monks must
dress in rags, which they must sew together
80 THE RELIGIONS AND
themselves, and for a part of the year they
are compelled to live in forests, sitting on
a carpet under the shadow of a tree, being
forbidden by the regulations even to lie down
to sleep. They must also exhibit charity,
benevolence and kindness to animals.
Although the Buddha is supposed by his
followers to have attained to Nirvana and thus
to be no longer in existence, statues of him
form the central object of all Buddhist temples.
Here he continues to be worshipped, and
incense, flowers and fruits are offered to him
daily. This does not necessarily mean idolatry
of any kind, however, for the disciples of the
great teacher never actually looked upon him
as a god. Gautama was merely the latest
Buddha, the Buddha of the present cycle. It
is believed that there were twenty-four Buddhas
previously to his appearance on earth, and that,
when at the end of the present cycle of
existence all things are reduced to their primal
elements and another world springs up, a
further Buddha will be born to preach the
gospel of Nirvana in a new universe. It follows
therefore that the service celebrated in the
Buddhist temples is not worship in the
Christian or Judaic sense of the word, but
is merely commemorative, the sight of the
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 81
numerous relics of the Illuminated One serv-
ing as an encouragement for men to follow in
the path which he trod centuries ago. Among
these relics^ by the way, is said to be one of
Buddha's teeth. This is a piece of ivory about
an inch long. It is preserved in Ceylon and
is very rarely exhibited.
It is clear from the Buddha's own writings
and sayings, and from the traditions which
have come down to us respecting him, that
his learning, however it may have been ac-
quired, was superior to that of most men of
his age. His works show traces of profound
study ; similes, metaphors, analogies come aptly
to him. Whatever the modern philosopher
may think of Buddhism as a stage in the
solution of world-problems, it must not be
overlooked that every religion does not re-
present the highest form of a philosophical
system, but the lowest form ; for, in order to
succeed and gain ground, it must appeal to
the unintelligent and unthinking masses.
4 * Every law-giver," says Lafont, " must make
an abstract of his intelligence and wisdom to
find a formula applicable to all, and it is in
this sense that he must be judged superior
to his doctrine."
It is easy to see that the salient characteristic of
82 THE RELIGIONS AND
Gautama is goodness. Touched by compassion
for the misfortunes of humanity, he gave up
his role of philosopher and reasoner ; greatly
affected by the sight of the low castes, the
innumerable woes they had to endure in this
life, and their long successions of painful trans-
formations in lives to come, this Brahman
and prince endeavoured to find a formula
which should save all men. In this he bears
a striking resemblance to the Christ of five
centuries later, and the likeness between the two
is increased when we remember that Buddha
called round him, not the rich men and the
nobles, but the poor and lowly. Unlike Christ,
however, Buddha did not openly and covertly
appeal to the cupidity of the poor and their
envy of the rich, thus starting a class warfare
which has endured in Christian countries to
this day. It may possibly, for example, be as
difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of heaven as for a camel to pass through the
eye of a needle ; but Buddha saw no reason
for mentioning this fact and using it as a
weapon of religious propaganda. The fewer
man's wants, the better, was the doctrine of
the Indian teacher, and he preached it with
such good effect that the Buddhist monks beg
their bread even at the present time, and are
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 83
not permitted to hold any personal property
beyond what is absolutely necessary for the
purposes of their religion. A state of things
in which the Church would be allowed to hold
the best of the land, and to play a foremost
part in things political in addition to things
spiritual, as in modern Spain and mediaeval
England, would be impossible under Buddhism.
Where spiritual matters are concerned,
indeed, the Buddhist is stronger than the
Christian. The introduction of a Saviour
into a faith to perform tasks for the followers
of the faith which they are unable to carry out
for themselves, is always a decided symptom of
psychological weakness. The Christian cannot
" save " himself his salvation can be ensured
only through the medium of his Saviour. The
Buddhistic doctrine, on the other hand, de-
pends entirely on the self-reliance of the man.
No outside intervention or pleading is of the
slightest avail : the Buddhist must save him-
self; he must, and can, attain to Nirvana
through his own unaided efforts. This strik-
ing distinction between the two beliefs has been
clearly summed up by the greatest psychologist
and philosopher since Aristotle :
BUDDHA versus CHRIST. Among the Nihilistic re-
ligions, Christianity and Buddhism must always be
84 THE RELIGIONS AND
sharply distinguished. Buddhism is the expression of a
fine evening, perfectly sweet and mild it is a sort of
gratitude towards all that lies hidden, including that which
it entirely lacks, viz., bitterness, disillusionment, and re-
sentment. Finally, it possesses lofty intellectual love ; it
has got over all the subtlety of philosophical contradictions,
and is even resting after it, though it is precisely from that
source that it derives its intellectual glory and its glow as
of a sunset (it originated in the higher classes).
Christianity is a degenerative movement, consisting of
all kinds of decaying and excremental elements : it is not
the expression of the downfall of a race, it is, from the
root, an agglomeration of all the morbid elements which
are mutually attractive and which gravitate to one another.
It is therefore not a national religion, not determined by
race : it appeals to the disinherited everywhere ; it con-
sists of a foundation of resentment against all that is
successful and dominant : it is in need of a symbol which
represents the damnation of everything successful and
dominant. It is opposed to every form of intellectual
movement, to all philosophy : it takes up the cudgels for
idiots, and utters a curse upon all intellect. Resentment
against those who are gifted, learned, intellectually inde-
pendent : in all these it suspects the element of success
and domination. 1
Another contrast between Buddhism and
Christianity is well put by Nietzsche :
In Buddhism this thought prevails : " All passions,
everything which creates emotions and leads to blood, is a
call to action " to this extent alone are its believers
warned against evil. For action has no sense, it merely
binds one to existence. All existence, however, has no
sense. Evil is interpreted as that which leads to irra-
tionalism : to the affirmation of means whose end is denied.
A road to nonentity is the desideratum, hence all
emotional impulses are regarded with horror. For
1 Nietzsche, The Will to Power, i. Aph. 154.,
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 85
instance : " On no account seek after revenge ! Be the
enemy of no one ! " The Hedonism of the weary finds
its highest expression here. Nothing is more utterly
foreign to Buddhism than the Jewish fanaticism of St
Paul : nothing could be more contrary to its instinct than
the tension, fire and unrest of the religious man, and,
above all, that form of sensuality which Christianity
sanctifies with the name " Love." Moreover, it is the
cultured and very intellectual classes who find blessedness
in Buddhism : a race wearied and besotted with centuries
of philosophical quarrels, but not beneath all culture, as
those classes were from which Christianity sprang. In
the Buddhistic ideal, there is essentially an emancipation
from good and evil : a very subtle suggestion of a Beyond
to all morality is thought out in its teaching, and this
Beyond is supposed to be compatible with perfection
the condition being, that even good actions are only needed
pro tern., merely as a means, that is to say, in order to be
free from all action. 1
The philosophical side of a religion consists
of a number of doctrines, which form its
dogma ; and there is also a certain ritual
to be carried out at regular intervals, which
forms the cult of the religion. At the
inception of a faith its cult is extremely
simple and its dogmas few in number. Then,
by a regular process, new theories are developed,
the ritual is modified accordingly, and learned
priests bring about changes in the metaphysical
side. As the result of such constant progres-
sion, a religion in time differs a great deal
from its original form. We have only to turn
1 The Will to Power, i. Aph. 155.
86 THE RELIGIONS AND
to Christianity for an example of this continual
process of transformation.
After Buddha's death, too, various changes
were made in the form of his doctrines.
Disciples wrangled with one another as to
the precise meaning to be attached to the
master's parables and definitions, and the faith,
scarcely able for a few years to hold its own
against Brahmanism in Gautama's own district,
seemed in danger of being split up into a
number of jarring sects, like Christianity at
the present day. Immediately after the Buddha's
death a council was held and a certain number
of doctrines standardised, these proceedings
being confirmed by a second council held about
a century later. But, even then, Buddhism
might have flickered out had it not been for
the exertions of a ruler who is venerated even
to-day wherever Buddhists are to be found.
To King Asoka belongs the credit of having
elevated Buddhism from the position of a sect
to the position of a state religion.
This King Asoka was the grandson of the
famous Chandragupta, who is known to
historians as the founder of the Northern
Empire of India. He was a contemporary
of Alexander the Great. A warrior and
Brahman, uniting the virtues of the two
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 87
higher castes, Asoka, after a series of brilliant
campaigns, added the kingdoms of Bengal
and Orissa to his dominions shortly after
having ascended his own throne of Magadha
(the modern Behar) in 273 B.C. Determined
to let nothing stand in the way of his ambition,
he had his brothers assassinated in order that
he might enjoy the sole power, and he is charged
with other crimes of an equally serious nature.
As in the case of Gautama, however, Asoka,
towards middle life, seems to have been over-
come by a feeling of pessimism. After long
meditation on the sins, iniquities, and vanities
of the world, he was converted to Buddhism,
and at once proceeded to summon a council
the third in order that the essential doctrines
of the faith might be properly defined. As
Mr Vincent A. Smith, his best biographer,
has pointed out, 1 King Asoka confined his
efforts to drawing up a practical code of morals,
and did not base his teaching upon any meta-
physical or theological principle. The council
appears to have been called together about
260 or 259 B.C., i.e. y nearly two centuries after
the Buddha's death. About 257 B.C. King
Asoka began his practice of inscribing his
1 See his Asoka^ the Buddhist Emperor (Oxford Univ. Press, 1909),
chaps, i. and ii.
88 THE RELIGIONS AND
Buddhistic precepts upon rocks and pillars,
and it is from these edicts that we have gained
a great deal of information regarding practical
Buddhism. The Rock and Pillar Edicts of
the Buddhist emperor are found principally in
Rajputana, Southern Behar, Mysore, Peshawar,
Madras, Delhi (U.P.), and Northern Behar.
The Sarnath Pillar Edict was discovered a
few years ago at Sarnath, about three miles
to the north of Benares. Inscriptions on the
roofs of caves have also been discovered in
the Barabar Hills of the Gaya district of
Southern Behar. Mr V. A. Smith, the author
of the biography of King Asoka just referred
to, has edited what is probably the best edition
of the Edicts, and a few typical quotations
cannot fail to be of interest :
Even by the small man who exerts himself, immense
heavenly bliss may be won. (Minor Rock Edicts, I.)
Here in the capital no animal may be slaughtered for
sacrifice, nor may holiday feasts be held, because his
sacred and gracious Majesty the King sees manifold evil
in holiday feasts, although holiday feasts in certain places
are meritorious in the sight of his Majesty the King.
(Rock Edict I., entitled : "The Sacredness of Life.")
Everywhere in his dominions his sacred and gracious
Majesty the King has made two kinds of curative arrange-
ments, to wit, curative arrangements for men and curative
arrangements for beasts. Medicinal herbs also, medicinal
for man and medicinal for beast, wherever they were
lacking, have been imported and planted ; roots also and
fruits, wherever they were lacking, everywhere have been
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 89
imported and planted. On the roads both wells have
been dug and trees planted for the enjoyment of man
and beast. (Rock Edict II.)
Everywhere in my dominions the officials and the
commissioners for five years must proceed on circuit
as well as for their other duties as for this special purpose,
namely, to proclaim the Law of Piety, to wit : a
meritorious thing is the hearkening to father and mother ;
a meritorious thing is liberality to friends, acquaintances,
relatives, Brahmans, and ascetics ; a meritorious thing
it is to abstain from slaughter of living creatures ; a
meritorious thing it is to spend little and store little.
(Rock Edict III.)
People perform ceremonies on occasions of sickness,
the weddings of sons, the weddings of daughters, the
birth of children, the departure on journeys. On these
and other similar occasions people perform various
ceremonies. But at such times the womenkind perform
many, manifold, trivial, and worthless ceremonies.
Ceremonies certainly have to be performed, although
that sort bears little fruit. This sort, however the
ceremonial of piety bears great fruit. In it are included
the proper treatment of slaves and servants, honour to
teachers, gentleness towards living creatures, and liberality
towards ascetics and Brahmans. These things, and others
of the same kind, are called the ceremonial of piety. . . .
By what sort of ceremonies is the desired end attained ?
for the ceremonial of this world is of doubtful efficacy ;
perchance it may accomplish the desired end ; perhaps it may
not, and its effect is merely of this world. The ceremonial
of piety, on the contrary, is not temporal ; for, even if it
fails to attain the desired end in this world, it certainly
begets endless merit in the other world. (Rock Edict IX.)
The Kalingas were conquered by his sacred and gracious
Majesty the King when he had been consecrated eight
years. One hundred and fifty thousand people were
thence carried away captive, one hundred thousand were
there slain, and many times that number perished.
Directly after the annexation of the Kalingas began his
90 THE RELIGIONS AND
sacred Majesty's zealous protection of the law of piety, his
love of that law, and his giving instruction in that law
(dharma). Thus arose his sacred Majesty's remorse for
having conquered the Kalingas, because the conquest of a
country previously unconquered involves the slaughter,
death and carrying away captive of the people. That is
a matter of profound sorrow and regret to his sacred
Majesty. . . . And for this purpose has this pious Edict
been written, in order that my sons and grandsons, who
may be, should not regard it as their duty to conquer a
new conquest. If, perchance, they become engaged in a
conquest by arms, they should take their own patience
and gentleness, and regard as the only true conquest the
conquest won by piety. That avails for both this world
and the next. Let all joy be in effort, because that avails
for both this world and the next. (Rock Edict XIII.)
All men are my children, and just as I desire for my
children that they may enjoy every kind of prosperity and
happiness in both this world and the next, so also I desire
the same for all men. (Kalinga Edict I.)
With certain natural dispositions, success [towards a
religious end] is impossible, to wit, envy, lack of persever-
ance, harshness, impatience, want of application, laziness,
indolence. You must desire that such dispositions be not
yours. (Kalinga Edict II.)
This world and the next are hard to secure save by
intense love of the Law of Piety, intense self-examina-
tion, intense obedience, intense dread and intense effort.
(Pillar Edict I.).
After I had been consecrated twenty-six years, the
following species were declared exempt from slaughter,
to wit : parrots, starlings, ducks, geese, bats, queen-ants,
female tortoises. . . . The living must not be fed with
the living. (Pillar Edict V.)
After I had been consecrated twelve years I caused
pious Edicts to be written for the welfare and happiness
of mankind, with the intent that they, giving up their old
courses, might attain growth in piety one way or another.
Thus, aiming at the welfare and happiness of mankind,
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 91
with that object I devote my attention alike to my
relatives, to persons near, and to persons afar off. . . .
For all denominations are reverenced by me with various
forms of reverence. 1 Nevertheless, this personal adher-
ence to one's own creed is the chief thing, in my opinion.
(Pillar Edict VI.)
The growth of piety . . . has been effected by two-
fold means, to wit, pious regulations and meditation. Of
these two means, however, pious regulations are of small
account, whereas meditation is superior. (Pillar Edict VII.)
King Asoka, however, was not content with
merely setting forth the Buddha's doctrines in
a permanent form. He advanced the faith
enormously, as already mentioned, by making it
a state religion ; but his enthusiasm did not
stop here. By his orders trained missionaries
were sent to all parts of India and Ceylon,
and he extended his operations even further.
Antiochus Theos,* King of Syria; Ptolemy
Philadelphus, King of Egypt ; Magas, King
of Cyrene ; Antigonus Gonatas, King of
Macedonia, and Alexander, King of Epirus,
were all courteously invited to give up their
false gods in favour of the new faith expounded
by the Indian emperor, though, unfortunately,
records are wanting to show in what precise
spirit this invitation was received.
When on the subject of King Asoka, it
should not be forgotten that to his reign
1 This instance of toleration, two centuries and a half before the
beginning of our era, is surely worthy of notice.
92 THE RELIGIONS AND
belongs the first recorded attempt at bureau-
cratic Socialism. In order that the " rules of
piety " might be properly enforced, a swarm of
officials as mentioned in one of the Edicts
just quoted were appointed to visit every
household in the name of the emperor and to
see that the religious functions ordered were
duly carried out. This, however, caused even
the mild Hindoo to turn ; for scenes, it would
appear, took place resembling that which led
to Wat Tyler's memorable dispute with a tax-
collector, and after the emperor's death in
232 B.C. there was an insurrection which put
an end for ever to the odious system of
personal inspection. It may be worth while
mentioning this two-thousand-year-old incident
as a warning to the socialistically inclined.
Apart from King Asoka's propagation of the
faith, we have a collection of sacred Buddhistic
writings, known as the Tripitaka, or the Three
Baskets.
(1) The Sutra-Pitaka, containing the Sutras.
This is the essential part of the Buddhist teach-
ing, which is set forth in maxims, apophthegms,
short sermons and parables. This book may be
in the hands of either the monks or the laity.
(2) The Vinaya-Pitaka, containing the rules
of conduct of members of the Order.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 93
(3) The Abhidharma, or writings dealing
with the more profound metaphysical doctrines
of Buddhism.
Buddhism is distinguished from all other
religions, especially, of course, Judaism, Chris-
tianity, and Mohammedanism, by the fact that
all these writings do not profess to be inspired
from a supernatural source. Buddhism entirely
rejects the doctrine that there is any such
source. The rules of conduct set forth by the
master are the results of long study and medita-
tion, and they may be followed by any one.
Unlike Christianity, as has previously been
mentioned, there is no Saviour : man must
depend upon himself alone to attain supreme
moral perfection, and when he has done so he
himself becomes a Buddha, an enlightened one.
Truth is eternal ; and it is by his own intuition
that a Buddhist knows when he has arrived at
the highest stage of perfection. Hence, pos-
sibly, the eagerness with which the Chinese
and Japanese welcomed Buddhism, and the
ease with which they adapted themselves to it
and it to themselves. For these yellow nations
are noted for having passed through years of
evolution without having formed the conception
of a supernatural deity, basing their conduct
merely on reason and codes of morals in accord-
94 THE RELIGIONS AND
ance with rules laid down by a long line of
thinkers, of whom Confucius, for example, far
from being the first or even one of the earliest,
is merely the representative type.
Without setting science aside or frowning
upon it, Gautama's teaching rests on the prin-
ciple that virtue is superior to it ; that virtue
consists in doing good, and that it is the same
for all men, independently of riches or poverty,
knowledge or ignorance, suited equally to the
practical affairs of life and to preparations for
Nirvana. This principle was a radical departure
from the teaching of the Brahmans, in that it
proclaimed every man to be equal before the
moral law (as Christianity proclaimed every
man to be equal in the sight of God), together
with the superiority of the virtuous man over
the man of wisdom another resemblance to
Christianity.
Virtue, of course, included sexual chastity.
Life was miserable for every one, and the best
way to escape it was to abolish it as far as pos-
sible. But women's temptations induced men
to carry life onwards, and the Master disliked
the female sex accordingly. Buddha's great
European disciple, Schopenhauer, shows numer-
ous traces of this hatred of womenkind. The
great pessimist's bitterness on this particular
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 95
point is well known, yet his great predecessor
was just as bitter, though in Buddha's case the
bitterness is scattered rather than concentrated.
Buddha had a keen eye for female beauty, but
the sight of it merely awoke sad thoughts in
him, instead of provoking his passions. Par-
ables are not wanting to express the imperman-
ency of beauty as well as of everything else.
Once when the Buddha was residing on the Gridhrakuta
mountain, near Rajagriha, there was a certain famous
courtesan in the city, called Pundari, or Padma, most
beautiful in form and incomparable for grace. This woman
wearied of her mode of life, and resolved to join herself to
Buddha, and to become a Bhikshuni. Accordingly she
proceeded to the place where he was, and, having half
ascended the mountain, she halted a while at a fountain to
drink. Whilst lifting the water to her mouth, she saw
her face reflected in the fountain, and she could not but
observe her own incomparable beauty, the delicacy of her
complexion, her rosy hair, her graceful figure. On seeing
herself thus, she altered her mind and said : "Shall one
born so beautiful as I am go out of the world and become
a recluse ? no ! rather let me have my fill of pleasure
and be satisfied," on this she made ready to turn back
and go home. But in the meantime Buddha, seeing the
circumstance, and knowing that Pundari was in a con-
dition to be converted, transformed himself at once into
a beautiful woman, infinitely more charming than Pundari.
Meeting as they went, the courtesan was amazed at the
beauty of the strange woman, and asked her : " Whence
come you, fair one ! And where dwell your kindred ?
and why do you travel thus alone, without attendants ? "
On which the stranger replied : " I am returning to yonder
city, and though we be not acquainted let us join company
and go together." On this they went on their way till
96 THE RELIGIONS AND
they came to a certain fountain on the road, where they
sat down. At length, the conversation having ceased, the
strange beauty, resting herself against the knees of Pundari,
fell asleep. After a time the courtesan, looking down at
her friend, was amazed to behold her form entirely changed ;
she had become loathsome as a corpse, her face pallid, her
teeth gone, the hair fallen from her head, hateful insects
feeding on her flesh. Frightened and aghast at the sight,
Pundari hastened away from the spot, and as she exclaimed,
" How transient is human beauty ! " she hurried back again
in the direction of Buddha's dwelling-place, and, having
arrived, cast herself prostrate at his feet, and related to him
what she had seen, on which Buddha addressed her thus :
" There are four things, Pundari, which must ever cause
sadness and disappointment. That one, however beautiful,
must yet become old ; that one, however firmly established,
must die ; that one, bound in closest ties of friendship and
affection, must yet be separated from those one loves ;
and that wealth, heaped up in ever such profusion, must
yet be scattered and lost."
And then the World- Honoured added these
lines and said :
" Old age brings with it loss of all bodily
attraction ; through decay and disease a man
perishes ; his body bent, and his flesh withered,
this is the end of life. What use is this body
when it lies rotting beside the flowings of the
Ganges ? It is but the prison-house of disease,
and of the pains of old age and death. To
delight in pleasure, and to be greedy of self-
indulgence, is but to increase the load of sin,
forgetting the great change that must come,
and the inconstancy of human life."
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 97
The courtesan having heard these words was
able to see that life is but as the flower, that
there is nothing permanent but Nirvana, and
so she requested permission to become a Bhik-
shuni, which was readily granted. 1
" How," said his disciple, Ananda, to him on
one occasion, " how should we conduct our-
selves towards women ?" "Turn away your
head ! " " But if we should see her ? " " Not
speak to her ! " " But if we should happen to
speak to her ? " " Then you must be very
watchful, Ananda ! "
" Women are the worst enemies of wise
men ; guard yourselves from them as from a
poisonous snake/' was another piece of advice
to his followers.
" Lewdness," he once declared, " clings to
women like filth ! " an exaggerated statement
of the unconsciously sexual or child-bearing
nature of all real women, and a characteristic
which has been observed by every keen critic of
human nature, from Juvenal to Weininger. It
is likewise a characteristic, however, which all
men of thought seem to detest when in the com-
pany'of such women, because it interferes with
their own child-bearing their books.
1 Texts from the Buddhist Canon (Dhamtnafadha) Beal's translation,
pp. 42-3.
CHAPTER VI
The early Arabs Their religious system Birth of
Mohammed His early studies the Hanifs
Mohammed's alleged " epilepsy " His lonely medita-
tions His first revelation Early converts Quarrels
with the Meccans Flight to Medina Progress of
Islamism Capture of Medina Death of the Prophet
His successors.
ABOUT 500 A.D. the Persians secured a firm
footing in Arabia through helping the native
princes to expel the Christians from the
Northern frontier. Their influence, however,
did not extend to the Western or Southern
part of the Peninsula, and in the Nejd, the
Hijaz and the Yemen, the wandering bands of
Arabian hunters and even the village com-
munities were left comparatively unmolested.
The religious state of these tribes presents a
strong analogy to that of the Jews before the
appearance of Moses. It may best be described
as Pagan pantheism, though, out of the
numerous gods, Allah was after a time recog-
nised as the supreme power, the remaining
gods being looked upon as his children. It
would appear that the subordinate deities were
the special protectors of individual tribes and
98
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 99
families, in the same manner as the Italians
even at the present day carry about the images
of certain saints : but all oaths were sworn in
the name of Allah. It by no means follows,
however, that Allah was specially feared or rever-
enced, for in worship or sacrifice the last place
was allotted to him, in order that the other
deities, representing as they did certain specific
interests, might be worshipped first.
The Arab of ancient times, however, and
the trait is seen to a great extent even in his
modern descendant was an extreme indi-
vidualist. Most of his time was spent in hunt-
ing, varied by wine, gambling, and love,
together with an occasional feud. These hardy
fighters endeavoured to perform noble deeds,
and to sustain and raise the prestige of their
family or tribe ; but in doing so they trusted
to themselves alone. They appeal to no super-
natural power, and in times of danger they
rely upon their swords.
From the time they come within the ken of
history the Arabs seem to have been influenced
by the deities mentioned above, but about the
fifth or sixth century of our era the want of a
new religion began to be felt. As they were
partly allied to the Jews from an ethnological
standpoint, it may have been thought that the
ioo THE RELIGIONS AND
Arabs would have come under the sway of the
Old Testament. But it must be recollected
that at this period Judaism was represented
merely by commentators, grammarians and
subtle casuists. The fighting spirit of Judaism
was applied intellectually and not physically in
an endeavour to maintain the race, which was
now without a country and scattered among
many hostile populations. The once agri-
cultural Hebrews had become merchants and
money-lenders, and were despised by a righting
people like the Arabs accordingly. A faith
was wanting which should unite the scattered
Arab tribes and mould them into a great nation
by means of a firm spiritual discipline.
Among the numerous Arab tribes one in
particular early came into prominence. This
was the Beni-Kinana, and one branch of it, the
Koraish, who had settled in and about Mecca,
were noted for their long trading journeys,
and, for that time, wide knowledge of the
world. Their culture, we learn, was naturally
superior to that of the nomadic tribes, and
even to that of the more agricultural inhabitants
of Medina, a city some 240 miles off. Among
the most powerful and influential families of
Mecca were Beni-Omayya, the Beni-Makhsum
and the Beni-Hashim, and from a branch of the
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST
latter, the Abdulmottalib, was born Mohammed
ben Abdullah, on 29th August 570. The
Prophet's father died before his son's birth, and
his mother, Anina, died when he was still com-
paratively young. Mohammed's grandfather,
Abdul mottalib, then took charge of the boy for
a time, and he was afterwards taken under the
protection of his uncle, Abu Talib ben Abdul-
mottalib. The family had been wealthy at one
time, but a series of misfortunes had reduced
their worldly resources, though their influence
was still very powerful.
When twenty-four years of age Mohammed
entered the business house of a rich widow
named Khadija, and in her behalf he made
several trading journeys in Palestine and Syria,
thus gaining some knowledge of the world and
coming into contact with foreign learning,
customs, and religions. Although the widow
was several years his senior, he married her,
after having been in her employment for some
time, and several children resulted from the
union. Mohammed's two sons died in child-
hood, and of his daughters one in particular,
Fatima, afterwards became well known in con-
nection with the promulgation of her father's
faith.
At the age or thirty-four or thirty-five
102 THE RELIGIONS AND
Mohammed began to be influenced by the re-
ligious movement already referred to. Among
those who felt the narrowness of the beliefs
generally prevailing and the need for something
better, were Omayya ben abi'1-Salt, Zaid ben
Amur, Abu Kais and Abu Amir, the first two
belonging to Mecca and the latter two to
Medina. These men were known as Hanifs,
which is generally supposed to mean penitents,
though hardly in the Christian sense of the
word. They devoted their time chiefly to re-
flection and meditation upon the actual religion
of the Arabs ; but they were not possessed of the
genius of the man who was soon to join them.
Mohammed in early life was subject to fits
resembling epilepsy, though the exact nature of
his disease has long been a matter of dispute.
As it is also fairly evident that he possessed
the faculty of seeing visions, we shall not be
straining a point in deciding that his supposed
epilepsy or ecstasy was simply the result of
his strong religious fervour, which was merely
waiting to be drawn forth and developed to
become a potent instrument. The future
prophet proceeded to study the Hanifs and
their beliefs, but found that they were merely
ascetics, acknowledging Allah and resigning
themselves to his will, being at the same time
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 103
much more interested in saving their own
individual souls than in planning a widespread
movement for the benefit of the Arabian race
as a whole. Following the example of these
ascetics, however, Mohammed withdrew for
long periods to a remote part of the mountains,
in order that he himself might meditate.
Undoubtedly his thoughts were influenced by
the teachings of the Hanifs, though who actu-
ally influenced the Hanifs is a matter of some
doubt. Tradition and written evidence tend
to show that they had come into contact with
both Jews and Christians, and in particular
with members of the Essene sect. In spite
of all this, however, an impartial enquirer will
admit that, no matter what superficial analogy
there may seem to be between Mohammedan-
ism and Judaism, or even Mohammedanism
and Christianity, the main features of the faith
were entirely original. No doubt, however,
many Islamic sayings may be found in the Old
Testament, and even some in the New, as we
shall see when we come to consider the Koran.
A well-known tradition says that one night,
as Mohammed was meditating on Mount Hira,
the Angel Gabriel appeared to him as he lay
sleeping, and, although the prophet could not
read, compelled him to study a sentence written
104 THE RELIGIONS AND
on a silken scroll. This was the first appear-
ance on earth of a text from a heavenly
volume, out of which other prophets, such as
Moses and Jesus, had, through inspiration,
derived their knowledge. The words are
repeated in Sura 1 xcvi. of the Koran : " Read !
in the name of thy Lord who created man
from a drop of blood ! For thy Lord is the
Most High, who hath taught by the pen, hath
taught to man what he knew not. Know
truly man walketh in delusion when he deems
that he sufficeth for himself ; to thy Lord they
must all return." Weil has pointed out that
this vision experienced by Mohammed (Sura
xcvii. i, 2) was based upon the traditional
conception of revelation and prophecy which
he had learnt to expect as the result of his
experiences with the Hanifs, and compares
Sura Ixxxvii. 6 : <( We will cause thee so to read
that thou mayest forget nothing save what God
will." Isaiah's lips are, it may be remembered,
"touched" to purge them of sin (Is. vi. 7) ;
Jeremiah's are " touched " by the Lord to put
the words in his mouth (Jer. i. 9) ; Ezekiel
1 Sura. As Rodwell points out, the word " Sura " occurs nine
times in the Koran, but it is not easy to determine whether it means a
whole chapter or only part of a chapter, or whether it is used in the
sense of "revelation." It is understood by the Mohammedan commen-
tators to have a primary reference to the succession of subjects or parts.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 105
receives the revelation as the roll of a book
which he has to swallow (Ezek. iii. 2). The
central ideas of Mohammedanism are contained
in the early Suras, in which category we may
include those just referred to. " Man lives on
content with himself; but he must one day
return to his Creator and Lord and account to
him for his actions on earth/' This is an old
Arabic principle ; but Mohammed made it
supreme by having it written down from the
revelation which he received direct from on
high-
Having collected his thoughts after the
angel had disappeared, Mohammed descended
the mountain and communicated the news
to his wife, Khadija. Apparently he was
perturbed and dazed, hardly able to believe
what he had read and heard. Khadija
consoled him and endeavoured to dispel his
doubts. But the Prophet was still anxious.
Day after day he would ascend Mount Hira
and often thought of casting himself from the
summit. After two or three years of mental
anguish he suddenly rushed into his wife's
presence, crying : " Wrap me up ! Wrap me
up ! " This time, it is said, he fell into a swoon,
and when any further revelations were vouch-
safed him, he seems to have had an attack
io6 THE RELIGIONS AND
resembling epilepsy. On his recovery he
dictated Sura Ixxiv. beginning, " Oh ! thou
enveloped one ! " From this time onward
revelation regularly followed revelation, and
Mohammed became convinced of his Divine
mission, although before he had experienced
many doubts (Sura xciii.) :
By the noon-day BRIGHTNESS,
And by the night when it darkeneth !
Thy Lord hath not forsaken thee, neither hath
he been displeased.
And surely the Future shall be better for thee
than the Past,
And in the end shall thy Lord be bounteous to
thee and thou be satisfied.
Did he not find thee an orphan and gave thee a
home ?
And found thee erring and guided thee,
And found thee needy and enriched thee.
As to the orphan therefore wrong him not ;
And as to him that asketh of thee, chide him not
away ;
And as for the favours of thy Lord tell them
abroad.
The process of conversion then began. The
first to yield to the solicitations of the Prophet
was his wife Khadija, then his freedman, Zaid
ben Haritha, his cousin Ali, and his friend
Abu Bekr or Abubekr ben Abi Kohafa. Owing
to the influence of the latter, several influential
men were induced to embrace the doctrines
of Mohammed, among them being Othman
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 107
ben Affan, Zobair ben al-Awwam, Abdul
Rahman ben Auf, and Sad ben Abi Wakkas,
whose names occur frequently in the history
of the great religious movement. Mohammed
himself at this period did not think he was
founding a new religion, but that he was
merely reminding his brethren of old truths
and duties which had long been forgotten.
His conviction that he was a second Moses
and had a Divine mission to promulgate
the commands of the Almighty on earth, urged
him to make a public profession of his faith
and to secure converts, and in order that
suitable meetings might be held, one of his
disciples offered him a house in the centre
of the town of Mecca. Here prayers were
made and the deity worshipped in accordance
with the teachings of the Prophet ; but many
of the influential Arabs held aloof from the
proceedings on the ground that, although
Mohammed himself had come from the upper
classes of Arabian society, most of his followers
came from the lower elements. It seems to
have been chiefly on this account that the
enthusiasm of the Prophet did not appeal to
them ; and Mohammed appears to have felt
considerable irritation at their attitude. In
Sura Ixxx., for example, we find him rebuked
io8 THE RELIGIONS AND
by God for having thrust aside a beggar who
addressed him as he was engaged in trying
to convert a man of a higher order of
society :
HE FROWNED, and he turned his back,
Because the blind man came to him !
But what assured thee that he would not be
cleansed by the Faith,
Or be warned, and the warning profit him ?
As to him who is wealthy
To him thou wast all attention :
Yet is it not thy concern if he be not cleansed :
But as to him who cometh to thee in earnest,
And full of fears
Him dost thou neglect.
Nay ! but it (the Koran) is a warning ;
(And whoso is willing beareth it in mind)
Written on honoured pages,
Exalted, purified,
By the hands of Scribes, honoured, righteous.
Cursed be man ! What hath made him un-
believing ?
Of what thing did God create him ?
Out of moist germs.
He created him and fashioned him,
Then made him an easy passage from the womb,
Then causeth him to die and burieth him ;
Then, when he pleaseth, will raise him again
to life.
Ay ! but man hath not yet fulfilled the bidding
of his Lord.
Let man look at his food :
It was We who rained down the copious rains,
Then cleft the earth with clefts,
And caused the upgrowth of the grain,
And grapes and healing herbs,
And the olive and the palm,
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 109
And enclosed gardens thick with trees,
And fruits and herbage,
For the service of yourselves and of your cattle.
But when the stunning trumpet-blast shall arrive,
On that day shall a man fly from his brother,
And his mother and his father,
And his wife and his children ;
For every man of them on that day his own
concern shall be enough.
There shall be faces on that day radiant,
Laughing and joyous :
And faces on that day with dust upon them :
Blackness shall cover them !
These are the Infidels, the Impure.
As has already been stated, the Arabs were
polytheists and worshipped several minor gods
besides Allah. Mohammed's teaching, on the
contrary, was, like that of Moses in the case
of the Hebrews, entirely monotheistic : and
as he found himself and his divine mission
more and more neglected, he accentuated his
diatribes against the polytheism of his fellow-
countrymen. Furthermore, he threatened the
Meccans with punishment on account of their
neglecting God's chosen messenger. Attack
after attack followed upon various Meccan
customs and superstitions, so that finally the
irritated inhabitants appealed to Mohammed's
uncle to withdraw his protection, or else to
desire his nephew to cease from what they
naturally regarded as unjustified slanders. This
no THE RELIGIONS AND
the uncle refused at first to do, but another
strong deputation of the townspeople induced
him to send for his nephew and explain matters.
The Prophet, however, was unmoved. " Though
they give me the sun in my right hand and the
moon in my left to entice me away from my
undertaking, yet will I not pause till the Lord
carry my cause to victory, or till I die for it,"
was his reply, saying which he wept and turned
away. His uncle, however, went after him
and solemnly promised never to abandon him.
While Mohammed himself suffered no
serious injury (largely due, it must be ad-
mitted, to the protection of his uncle), his
followers, especially those in the lower ranks of
society, were so much harassed by insults and
cruel treatment that many of them fled to
Abyssinia, for this latter country had merely
become Christian by accident, and a bond,
which might almost have been called racial,
united its inhabitants with the Arabian
refugees.
When the Prophet heard of this, he took
instant steps to effect a reconciliation. One of
his best-known attempts was that of meeting
the heads of the Koraish tribe and beginning
to recite to them Sura liii. When he came
to one passage "What think ye of al-Lab? "
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST in
the adverse influence caused him to interpret
the passage favourably to the old Arabian
deities. Pleased at this, the tribesmen ex-
pressed their willingness to recognise the teach-
ing of Mohammed ; but in the evening of the
same day the angel Gabriel appeared to the
prophet and reproached him with what he had
done. When Mohammed proceeded to circu-
late the revised version of the text, the Koraish
chiefs angrily repudiated him, and the old
state of things was once more in evidence.
Several of the Arabian emigrants to Abyssinia,
who had returned to Mecca in the hope of
finding some improvement in the condition of
the Mohammedans there, were disappointed,
and soon afterwards a second emigration took
place.
Throughout all this, however, the prophet
never lost faith in himself ; and his confidence
in his mission was to some extent rewarded by
two important conversions ; one of his uncle
and the other of Omar ben al-Khattab, a young
man of good family. About this time, too,
the Mohammedans irritated their fellow-
townsmen still more by praying in public and
making no secret of their faith, as they had
hitherto been compelled to do. The continued
sneers and gibes of the Meccans drew from the
H2 THE RELIGIONS AND
seer further prophecies of the downfall of the
city ; but the longer this " downfall " was
postponed, the more did the people mock
him.
From the commentators on the Koran,
whose writings have been so carefully examined
by Weil, we can judge that Mohammed was
at this period in close touch with the Jews ;
and this may well have been one reason why
his countrymen did not attach any importance
to his mission ; for at times they taunted him
with the human sources of the revelations
which he professed, and, we may be sure,
sincerely believed, to have received through
inspiration.
But the struggle between Mohammed and
the Meccans now broke out into open warfare.
The Prophet's followers were practically ex-
communicated ; they could neither buy nor
sell, except among themselves, and this drastic
treatment soon had its effect. Mohammed's
more lukewarm converts fell off by degrees,
and it would appear that he had some difficulty
in retaining even his more attached supporters.
To add to his troubles at this time, his wife,
Khadija, fell ill and died. He therefore re-
solved to abandon Mecca, for a time at least,
and to carry his propaganda in another direction.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 113
His first visit was to the neighbouring tribe
inhabiting the Taif country, but he had scarcely
begun to explain his doctrines before he was
attacked by a mob, who drove him out of the
city of Taif to the accompaniment of showers
of stones, and he was glad to take refuge in a
vineyard belonging to two friendly Meccans.
Fearing the reception which might await him
in Mecca, Mohammed did not venture near
his native city for two months more, and even
then he would not enter the precincts of the
town without having first assured himself that
he would be under the protection of a wealthy
and influential citizen, Mot'im ben Adi.
Shortly after having once more taken up his
quarters at Mecca, he married a second time,
his new wife being Sanda bint Zama, the widow
of one of the emigrants who had returned from
Abyssinia.
On the numerous occasions when fairs were
held in Mecca, Mohammed made a point of
going among the visitors and preaching to
them. As a rule he did not meet with much
success ; but in the year 619 of our era he fell
in with a party of traders from Medina, who
seemed not only disposed to listen to the new
teaching, but quick to grasp its essential
doctrines. This meeting, which was purely
ii 4 THE RELIGIONS AND
accidental, led to Mohammed's eventual
success. He enquired from the visitors
whether they thought their fellow-townsmen
would be equally ready to hear the word of
Allah, and they promised to tell him when
they returned the following year. Accordingly,
at a feast which was celebrated early in 620,
twelve of the leading citizens of Medina met
the prophet at Akaba, and, after having heard
his exposition of his revelations, they solemnly
promised to observe no god but Allah, and to
carry out the other commandments laid down.
This meeting was ever afterwards known as
ths First Homage on the Akaba ; and it
resulted in the twelve citizens returning to
Medina as propagandists of Mohammedanism.
They were accompanied by one of the prophet's
Meccan followers, whose duty it was to instruct
the inhabitants of Medina how to read the
Koran, and also to help to teach and explain
the doctrines in the book.
According to an agreement made, the
pilgrims returned in the following year (621),
and reported good progress, some seventy men
and women, who came with them, having been
converted to Islamism. This was known as
the Second Homage on the Akaba, and at this
interview it was definitely settled that, in view
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 115
of Mohammed's ill-success in Mecca, and the
probabilities of securing a much larger number
of converts in Medina, he should go to the
latter city and take up his residence there,
together with his Meccan disciples. They
swore to guard the Prophet, and he in his turn
promised to look upon himself as one of their
community.
Although all the arrangements in connection
with this emigration were kept as secret as
possible, it soon came to the knowledge of the
Meccans that many of their fellow-citizens
were taking flight, seduced from the true faith
by one whom they continued to consider as a
hypocritical impostor. Steps were at once
taken to prevent the departure of the visitors
from Medina, but the discovery was made too
late for this purpose. Failing this, the Meccans
turned their attention to the Moslems who
wished to emigrate. Some of them were
imprisoned and others bullied into disavowing
Mohammed's teachings. Neither threats nor
imprisonment, however, had any effect in post-
poning the crisis, and in April, 622, the
emigrants started, about 150 reaching Medina
within two months. From this date, so
momentous in the annals of the new faith,
the Mohammedan calendar was reckoned, and
u6 THE RELIGIONS AND
April 622 was recognised as the first month of
the Year of the Flight (the Hijra).
To the last the Prophet remained behind,
doubtless hoping against hope for some change
in the attitude exhibited towards him of the
inhabitants of his native place. Abubekr and
AH remained with him ; but when they heard
that a plot had been laid for assassinating
Mohammed, a hurried departure was taken.
Ali remained in Mecca for a short time ; but
for three days the two fugitives, Mohammed
and Abubekr, remained hidden in a cave on
Mount Thaur. At times they could hear the
muffled thuds of the horses' feet as their
pursuers vainly searched for them overhead,
and Abubekr expressed his fears to the Prophet
lest they should be captured. " We are only
two against a multitude/' he added. " But,"
answered the prophet sternly, (c is there not
a Third with us ? n And, thus reminded that
Allah was aiding them, the fears of the
Prophet's companion gave place to joy. This
flight is referred to in the Koran (Sura ix. 40) :
If ye assist not your Prophet . . . God assisted him
formerly, when the unbelievers drove him forth, in
company with a second only when they two were in the
cave ; when the Prophet said to his companion: "Be not
distressed ; verily, God is with us." And God sent down
his tranquillity upon him, and strengthened him with
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 117
hosts ye saw not, and made the word of those who believed
not the abased, and the word of God was the exalted ; for
God is Mighty, Wise.
Having returned to its owners certain
property entrusted to Mohammed for safe
keeping, Ali likewise started for Medina,
where he arrived unmolested. His two friends
had eluded pursuit and preceded him by a few
days. It was a tradition afterwards that the
Prophet was born, arrived at Medina, and died
on the 1 2th day of the month of Rabi ; but
although his death did actually take place on
this day (corresponding to 8th June 632), it is
not probable that his birth and arrival in
Medina also fell on the same day of the month.
Well might the Mohammedan calendar
date from the Hijra ; for with Mohammed's
arrival in Medina the real history of the move-
ment he inaugurated may be said to have
begun. From his new headquarters in the
village of Koba, near Medina, the prophet
carried his cause to victory, and lived to see a
great and powerful state founded upon his
religious doctrines. For this he has been
blamed by Christian historians, who see in his
efforts to use his religion for the founding of
a commonwealth a " want of spirituality," and
several other heinous offences. The modern
n8 THE RELIGIONS AND
student, however, will be inclined to think
differently. Such a religion was obviously
wanted for the preservation of the Arab race,
however scattered and hostile to each other the
various tribes might be. Far from exhibiting
a lack of perspicacity and low spiritual ideals,
Mohammed perceived with an insight which
cannot be too highly praised the opportunities
which it was necessary to seize in order to
attain his object. If the Arabs could only be
saved by the founding of a state upon his
doctrines, no present-day thinker would
seriously deny that the Prophet was right in
adapting means to ends. Once the facts of
the case were properly grasped by himself and
his intimate associates, Islamism spread with
astonishing rapidity throughout the land ; and
in a relatively short time the Arab soldiers had
proved the prowess of their arms to the entire
satisfaction of all those who had the misfortune
to come into contact with them, from the
Persian Gulf to the Iberian Peninsula.
Two circumstances combined to render
Mohammed's task fairly easy easy, that is,
when compared with the difficulties with which
he had previously been obliged to cope. In
the first place, the Arabs in and around Medina,
although merely two different branches of the
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 119
same tribe, were almost continuously at logger-
heads with each other. At times each in turn
sought the aid of the Jews, who had occupied
the district before the Arabs succeeded in
partly dislodging them. It was clear that this
would be splendid raw material if brought
under the control of a great individuality who
would know how to use it ; and Mohammed
was exactly the man to rule the tribes with a
firm hand. In the second place, both tribes
were in the habit of laying their grievances
before their Kahins, a body of men who might
be described as half-priest, half -sage ; but
when Mohammed, with his magnetic personality
and imposing presence, came into the midst of
them, it was unanimously agreed forthwith
that his reputation entitled him to a final
decision in all matters which were formerly
submitted to the Kahins. This gave him the
supreme spiritual power over the Arabs ; but
it must never be overlooked, in dealing with
the religion which he founded, that the people
he was now ruling over were not likely to
be deluded by a mere impostor, which some
Christians have accused him of being. Again,
his judgments, so far as we can trace the
history of his life at this period, appear to have
been invariably sound, and the veneration felt
120 THE RELIGIONS AND
for him as a prophet would not have protected
him to any great extent if they had been other-
wise. In short, wherever we endeavour to
consider his life in an impartial spirit,
Mohammed must inevitably strike us as a
man of far more than average insight, energy,
tact, and command over his fellows, all these
qualities being tinctured with that spirit of
ecstasy and reverence which animated Moses,
Buddha, and the other great seers of antiquity.
It is on minute points like these that Sir
William Muir's bias in favour of Christianity
leads him astray. His Life of Mohammed
a work which exhibits much research and
industry is spoiled from the outset by the
defect of nearly every English thinker, viz.,
a prejudice in favour of his country in
philosophy and religion, the two subjects of
which English writers have notoriously always
been the worst possible exponents.
While Mohammed's decision on any matter
brought before him for judgment was taken
as final, he was at first looked upon by the
Medinians as merely exercising a privilege
when giving such pronouncements. After a
time, however, the Prophet claimed this pro-
cedure as a right ; and no objection seems to
have been made. Indeed, a rebuke may be
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 121
noted in Sura iv. 63, of the Koran, obviously
levelled at a few Arabs who took their com-
plaints before the Kahins instead of bringing
them to him : " Hast thou not taken note of
those who professed to be believers, yet wish
to carry on their suit before the false gods ? "
In short, Mohammed was not long in Medina
before he became the foremost man in the
community, his revelations and prophecies not
merely giving him a special status as spiritual
adviser, but the exercise of his practical
common-sense showing him to be the wisest
ruler a state could have when dealing with
affairs of everyday life. As soon as he had
made himself the indisputable master of the
bodies and souls of the inhabitants of Medina,
Mohammed used his power to carry out a
thorough reform of the legal and religious
systems prevailing. The law (Sunna) grew
naturally out of his decisions, as the Torah
grew out of the decisions of Moses ; Exod. xviii.
may be compared as proof of the analogy :
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to
judge the people ; and the people stood by Moses from
the morning unto the evening.
And when Moses* father-in-law saw all that he did to
the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to
the people ? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the
people stand by thee from morning unto even ?
122 THE RELIGIONS AND
And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because the
people come unto me to enquire of God :
When they have a matter, they come unto me ; and I
judge between one and another, and I do make them
know the statutes of God, and his laws. (Verses 13-16.)
Mohammed devoted himself chiefly to the
rights of property, and made many salutary
laws in this connection. He also paid some
attention to the position of married women ;
and retained for himself the right of permitting
or withholding capital punishment, thus putting
an end at one stroke to the blood feuds which
had been the curse of Arabia for centuries.
That all these various measures were unhesitat-
ingly accepted by the community in general
well testifies to his powers as an administrator
and law-giver.
When Mohammed had settled in Medina
for a short time, he began to entertain great
expectations from the Jews, from whom he had
previously sometimes deliberately, but more
often without knowing it adopted many
religious practices in connection with the less
important parts of his system. He gradually
came to see, however, that his hopes were
bound to be disappointed in the long run.
While religion had the effect of bringing the
Arabs together in a political sense, it had not
this effect on the Jews, and their mutual
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 123
quarrels and recriminations were of much
assistance to the Prophet in developing and
strengthening his own position. But as the
Arabs gradually became welded together into
a single organic, political body, they found
themselves unable to tolerate foreign elements
within their regions, and a spirit of hostility
against the Jews was not long in making itself
felt.
As this feeling of revolt against the presence
of the Jews became stronger and stronger, the
prophet made a few alterations in his system
to correspond to it. Hitherto the Arabs
had prayed with their faces turned towards
Jerusalem ; now they were directed to face
Mecca. For the Jewish fast held on the loth
of Tishri there was substituted the month
of Ramadan. While the Jews recognised
Mohammed's authority as a kind of omni-
potent judge, they were not satisfied with the
development of a civil kingdom out of religion ;
so in Sura ii. we find a long diatribe against
them, doubtless brought about by some indis-
creet protest which had come to the ears of the
Prophet. Other minor features of the Moslem
ritual, which had hitherto had a Jewish tinge,
were also changed. The alteration in the
direction of prayer (kibla), when Mohammedans
124 THE RELIGIONS AND
were directed to face Mecca instead of Jerusalem,
was one of the most important.
As the result of these various changes the
basic principle of Islam (i.e., the Unity of God)
was accentuated, and the remaining four of
the five Islam precepts were gradually evolved,
viz., prayer at stated times, almsgiving to the
poor, the fast of Ramadan, the observance of
the festival of Mecca. The prayers, each of
which at first consisted of two and afterwards
of four protestations, were to be said five times
daily at sunrise, noon, afternoon, sunset, and
late in the evening. No matter what occupa-
tion the Moslem might be engaged upon,
when the hour came round for prayer he
must cease it and fulfil his religious duties.
The almsgiving was a device of Mohammed's
for introducing a spirit of fellowship among
the Moslems. The moneys appear to have
been paid to Mohammed himself in the first
instance, and distributed by him among the
needy, but they afterwards became a sort of
tithe, forming the foundation of the Moslem
fiscal system.
By these five regulations Mohammed seems
to have made his personal influence very strong.
La ilah ilia 'llah (no god but the one God)
was the rule of life ; but upon this short
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 125
summing up of the faith followed the corollary :
" and Mohammed is His Prophet." When
the Prophet spoke he spoke in the name of
the Almighty ; when he gave a command, the
command was an injunction from God and
must be obeyed. Hence the terse sentence
in one of the commentaries on the Koran :
" Brother would have slain brother, had
Mohammed willed it." Formerly the head
of the family had ruled undisputably over
the family ; but now God, in the person of
His only Prophet, ruled over all ; anarchy
gave place to order ; a heterogeneous confusion
of different tribes became a homogeneous and
compact mass of warriors. Every Moslem
was the brother of every other Moslem, so
far at all events as related to his protection
from injury at the hands of a non-Moslem.
There was no law outside of Islam ; and the
followers of Mohammed were under the
watchful care of Allah.
It is worth while devoting so much space
to an account of Mohammed's procedure and
success in Medina, for it was the turning of
his religion into a political and warlike state
that may be reckoned almost a miracle, and
not the fact that this state within a state
afterwards developed into a world-wide empire.
126 THE RELIGIONS AND
The nominal brotherhood of all the Moslems
which some writers have grotesquely suggested
would have led to Communism was reconciled
in practice with strict obedience to the leaders
of the commonwealth, and respect for the
higher spirits in the people on the part of
the lower. The almost uncanny ability of
the Asiatic to recognise a man of a superior
order of mind and to follow him unswervingly,
has already been referred to by Mr Meredith
Townsend ; and, though the Arabs are un-
doubtedly slower in this respect than the
Hindoos, it is evident that they did recognise
Mohammed's genius in a comparatively short
time, apart altogether from his position as
Allah's only Prophet. While the trait
mentioned holds good in regard to the Asiatic
even at the present day, it would be practically
impossible for this recognition to be extended
to any superior mind in our modern Europe
the sneers at Schopenhauer and Nietzsche for
example, from the men who should in the
ordinary course of events be entitled to no
opinions at all, are enough to assure us of
this. The moral and artistic chaos into which
the one-man, one-opinion spirit of democracy
is landing us makes one feel a large measure
of sympathy for the English bishop who said
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 127
about a century ago : " The common people
have nothing to do with the laws except to
obey them."
Having thoroughly organised his community,
Mohammed now proceeded to utilise his forces.
From this time onward the history of Islam is
political rather than religious, for it refers
principally to the numerous campaigns (maghazi)
waged by the apostle of God against the un-
believers. When the Prophet's reputation had
extended beyond Medina to the neighbouring
villages, a few allied tribes became converts
and made common cause with him. Such
tribes were the Johaina, Mozaina, the Ghifar,
and the Aslam. Thus reinforced, Mohammed
determined to show that he rather than Christ
had come with a sword and not with peace.
It was almost inevitable that the first holy war
(jihad) should be against the Meccans. True,
the prophet had been born amongst them ;
but faith was stronger than blood.
As Medina was situated on a mountain
ridge on the long highway from the Yemen
to Syria, Mohammed took advantage of this
position to plunder the Meccan caravans.
The first attempt, which proved entirely
successful, was made in the autumn of 623.
Mohammed sent out a band of his followers
128 THE RELIGIONS AND
under sealed orders, and a caravan returning
from Taif was attacked in accordance with
the instructions of the Prophet. Many
Meccans were killed in the struggle, but the
men who were sent out to perform this work
had to be disavowed by the Prophet afterwards,
as an attack during the sacred month of Rahab
was far from finding favour with the inhabitants
of Medina. Another expedition soon followed in
the month of Ramadan, 623 (which in that year
would correspond to December). An important
caravan was expected to return from Syria. Mo-
hammedset out to meet it to thenorth of Medina,
having with him three hundred and eight men.
The leader of the caravan, Abu Sofyan, heard of
the attack which had been planned against him,
and sent a special messenger to the Koraish in
Mecca for help. In response to this appeal
some nine hundred men were soon on their
way to Bedr, near where Mohammed was
lying in wait. The caravan took a circuitous
route and arrived safely ; but the Koraish
advanced to defend the honour of their city.
When they came in sight of Bedr Mohammed's
party mistook ithem for the caravan for which
they had been waiting, and a short period of
anxious excitement ensued when they learned
the truth. Confident in the ability of their
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 129
leader, however, they awaited the onslaught
of the enemy.
The battle took place on Friday, the I7th or
Ramadan. At first single combats were fought,
and the accounts describing them resemble not
a little the Homeric stories of the Trojan War.
Although outnumbered by three to one, the
Mohammedans had the advantage in two
respects. In the first place the Meccans saw
no particular reason for shedding the blood of
their fellow-countrymen, and in the second
place Mohammed's followers were animated
by that intense religious fervour with which
Asiatics always fight for new ideas, but which
Europeans, who do not understand new ideas,
call fanaticism. The struggle came to an end
late in the day, when the heads of many well-
known Meccan families had been slain. Two
of the prisoners, the Prophet's deadly enemies
when he was in Mecca, were put to death in
cold blood by his orders. The others were
permitted to depart on payment of a heavy
ransom, though Mohammed afterwards re-
gretted this clemency, saying that they all
deserved to be sent to hell.
Two important results to the benefit of
Islam resulted from this. Mohammed was
now in a strong enough position to break
130 THE RELIGIONS AND
down the influence and prestige of the Jews
in Medina. He went about this task by
calling upon the Beni Kainoka to accept Islam ;
and on their refusal he declared war against
them. A few short skirmishes settled the
matter, and the Jews were able to escape with
merely being banished from Medina. Again,
the Meccans were greatly impressed they
could not be otherwise by their defeat.
They spent about a year in planning how they
could best avenge themselves, and in January
625 they pitched their camp at the foot of
Mount Ohod, to the north-east of Medina.
Here another battle was engaged in, and after
a long struggle the victory went in favour
of the Meccans. Mohammed himself was
wounded in the face and lay on the ground
for some time as if dead, while his uncle was
killed outright. The Meccans were too
greatly weakened to follow up their victory,
and returned home again as soon as they could
collect their scanty forces. In order that the
Moslems might not appear to be daunted by
their defeat, Mohammed led a party of his
followers after them the next day and cut
down a few stragglers.
The summer of the same year witnessed the
expulsion of a powerful Jewish family from
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 131
Medina, the Beni Nadir, their land being
seized by Mohammed for his own personal use.
The expelled tribe, angered at the drastic treat-
ment which had been meted out to them, suc-
ceeded in bringing together the Bedouin tribes
of Solaim and Ghatafan. The Beni Nadir
arranged a compact between these tribes, the
ultimate object being to attack and exterminate
Mohammed and his followers. By March
627 they had succeeded so well that an army
of ten thousand men was ready to march on
Medina. Through his numerous spies, how-
ever, the Prophet learned of the arrangements
which were being directed against him, and he
was not long in making preparations for a siege.
The houses of Medina sufficed in themselves to
form a wall, except to the north-western part
of the town, where there was an open space.
Acting on the advice of his Persian freedman,
Salman, Mohammed gave orders for a fosse to
be dug, and here he entrenched his army. In
spite of the efforts of the huge force opposed
to them, the ranks of the Prophet's followers
could not be broken, and the besiegers en-
deavoured to prevail on the only Jewish family
left in Medina, the Koraiza, to help them from
the inside of the town. In response to the appeal,
the Jews made a half-hearted attempt at insur-
132 THE RELIGIONS AND
rection ; but the fear of Mohammed's power,
and the still greater fear that the forces opposed
to him would leave them in the lurch at the
end of the fighting, nullified their efforts from
the very beginning. Dissensions between the
Ghatafan and the other tribes, coupled with
the fact that provisions were beginning to run
short, ended in the withdrawal of the attack-
ing forces, after a siege lasting just two weeks.
They had scarcely been out of sight for more
than twenty-four hours when Mohammed called
his followers together for the purpose of at-
tacking the Jews the unlucky Koraiza family
which had endeavoured to assist his assailants.
They were penned up in their own quarter of
the city, and captured after a siege of several
days. Offered the choice of Islam or death,
they preferred the latter, and were duly exe-
cuted. The clan numbered in all nearly seven
hundred men, apart from the women and
children. All the men were slain, the women
and children being sold into slavery. A more
magnificent martyrdom, as Weil justly remarks,
has seldom been known in history.
Desirous now of bringing Mecca under his
control, Mohammed in March 628, set out on
one of the feast-days to visit his native place,
taking with him the respectable bodyguard of
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 133
fifteen hundred men. He halted at Hodaibiya,
on the borders of the town : but the Meccans
refused him admission. The Prophet scarcely
felt that he had a sufficient number of men with
him to force his way, and some alarm was caused
among his small army by a report that the
Meccans intended to attack him suddenly and
slay them to a man. This gave rise to an
event which became famous in the early history
of Islam; the " Homage under the Tree."
Mohammed made his followers swear, by strik-
ing hands, that they would support him through
anything that might happen and die if necessary
for his sake. The solemnity of the scene and
the intense devotion shown to the Prophet by
his followers were factors which greatly influ-
enced such of the Koraish as happened to be
present, and it was thought advisable to come
to terms. It was agreed that the Prophet
should not enter Mecca, in order that he
might not have it to say that he actually forced
his way into the town ; but that on the follow-
ing year he was to return and be admitted to
the precincts of Mecca for three days. After
some deliberation this proposal was accepted
and a treaty was drawn up accordingly.
Mohammed now led an expedition against
the wealthy Jews of Khaibar, to the north of
134 THE RELIGIONS AND
Medina, in order to compensate his disciples
for their set-back at Mecca. Taken by sur-
prise, and being without capable leaders, no
real resistance was offered to the forces of the
Prophet, and Jewish executions were once more
the rule.
The treaty which had been drawn up between
Mohammed and the Meccans lasted for nearly
two years, and in this time Islam began to
spread with astonishing rapidity. Many of the
tribes scattered about Medina and Mecca were
amazed at the ease with which the Prophet's
soldiers had routed hostile armies three or four
times their number, and at their steadfast ad-
herence to Mohammed himself. That faith
was worth more than force was an axiom which
the Arab tribes now began to observe, and as
a consequence the ranks of the Moslems were
swollen by thousands of new disciples in the
course of a year. In many cases these new
adherents of Allah were undoubtedly attracted
by the booty which so often fell to the lot of
the Moslem warriors. At the end of the first
twelve months Mohammed took advantage of
his treaty rights and visited Mecca with two
thousand men, and he was successful in con-
verting the heads of three very important
Meccan families.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 135
Everything was now ready for the Moslem
invasion of Mecca, but an excuse was wanting.
Fortunately this was soon supplied. An un-
important Koraish tribe attacked a tribe which
was allied with the Moslems, and though little
damage was done on either side, the Prophet
seized the opportunity to declare war. An
army of one hundred thousand men was soon
mustered, and in January 630 (or the month
of Ramadan A. H. 8) the campaign began.
Indeed, so secret did Mohammed keep his
movements until the last moment that his
troops were almost at the gates of Mecca before
the Koraish knew anything of the matter ; the
first intimation they had being the glow of ten
thousand camp fires a little to the west of the
city. Abu Sofyan, who, although one of the
principal Meccans, was secretly in the pay of
the Prophet, was sent to negotiate. He re-
turned to the citizens to say that their best
course was immediate surrender, Mohammed
having promised security to those who refrained
from interfering with him. This was agreed
to, and with the exception of one unimportant
struggle the Prophet and his followers were
able to enter Mecca with comparative ease.
In order not to alienate the sympathies of the
more important Arab tribes, Mohammed pro-
136 THE RELIGIONS AND
hibited his men from pillaging the city, and he
also took an early opportunity of confirming
all the old-established rights and privileges of
Mecca. By destroying every sanctuary outside
of Mecca, too, he made his native city an im-
portant centre of worship. About this time
also he remodelled the Moslem Calendar and
made certain alterations in the ceremonials
connected with the feasts.
The submission of the Koraish was the
signal for the neighbouring tribes to follow
suit. Only one important tribe held aloof,
the Howazin, and a short campaign soon made
them willing to throw in their lot with the
others. It was remarked after this that
Mohammed did all in his power to soothe the
Koraish chiefs. He left them with the property
they had already owned before he took posses-
sion of Mecca, and, in addition, gave them
a considerable share in the booty which had
been captured elsewhere by the men of Medina.
Indeed, the latter, who had done all the fight-
ing and helped in the greatest degree to
propagate the doctrines of Islam, felt slighted
when they saw the Koraish reaping the fruits
of the victory. The Prophet, however,
assembled them together and made a touch-
ing speech, reminding them of the dangers
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 137
they had endured in the past, and of the fact
that Allah might manifest himself in ways that
would seem strange to them, whereupon "all
the Moslems wept till their beards were wet,"
and said with one voice : " O Apostle of God,
we are satisfied with our portions ! "
In acting as he had done, however,
Mohammed was influenced by his own political
principles, and in this he was wise, however
much theologians may be inclined to censure
him. He saw that the future of Islam lay with
the powerful Arab aristocracy, such as were to
be found among the Koraish chiefs, hence the
importance he attached to their friendship, and
the steps he took to prepare the way for their
sovereignty over the other tribes after his death.
The conquest of Mecca was followed by
only one other great event in Mohammed's life.
On hearing a rumour that the Greek emperor
was about to march upon him, he gathered
together the largest army that had ever been
seen in Arabia, including twenty thousand foot
soldiers and ten thousand horse. He led this
force in person towards the Syrian borders, and
the expedition resulted in the complete subjuga-
tion of all the Christian and semi-Christian
tribes in the north. The Prophet's reputation
was at its zenith, and from all parts deputations
138 THE RELIGIONS AND
came to him to do homage in the name of the
various tribes, to such an extent that the years
8 and 9 of the Hijra were known as the Years
of the Deputations. The last great tribe to
yield was the Beni Amir, but it, too, was
conquered, and in 630 the Prophet, now
complete master of all Arabia, made his
pilgrimage to Mecca with the knowledge that
his divine mission had been successfully
accomplished. He had, in twenty years, as
Meredith Townsend justly says, lived a life
which would have hardened the heart and
ulcerated the temper of almost any man a life
such as that which in seven years turned
Frederick the Great into a military despot ;
but Mohammed's serene character was proof
against all the trials and temptations to which
he had been subjected, and in his last address
to the pilgrims from Mount Arafat, at Mecca,
he was able to proclaim a universal brotherhood
throughout Arabia and to exhort his disciples
to righteousness and piety.
" Ye people ! hearken to my speech and
comprehend the same. Know that every
Moslem is the brother of every other Moslem.
All of you are on the same equality " (and
as he pronounced these words, he raised his
arms aloft and placed the forefinger of one
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 139
hand on the forefinger of the other), " ye are
one brotherhood."
u Know ye what month is this ? What
territory is this ? What day ? " To each
question the people gave the appropriate
answer, viz., " The Sacred Month The Sacred
Territory the Great Day of Pilgrimage."
After every one of these replies Mohammed
added : " Even thus sacred and inviolable hath
God made the Life and the Property of each of
you unto the other until ye meet your Lord.
" Let him that is present tell it unto him
that is absent. Haply, he that shall be told, may
remember better than he who hath heard it."
On his return to Medina Mohammed
occupied himself with preparations for another
expedition to Syria, but the time had arrived
when he was soon to meet Allah face to face.
He was seized with a dreadful fever, and was
scarcely able to drag himself to the mosque,
where, amidst the loud lamentations of the
assembled congregation, he announced his
approaching death. This exertion by no means
helped him, and during the next few days he
gradually sank. His wives insisted on dosing
him with physic, and that he maintained his
sense of humour to the last may be seen in the
fact that he punished them by making them
140 THE RELIGIONS AND
take it also. On the 8th of June 862, he died
peacefully, praying to Allah almost to the last.
Even while the body of Mohammed lay
unburied, quarrels began to arise among his
disciples as to his successor. Finally, however,
Abu-Bekr, who was the father of Mohammed's
favourite wife, Ayeshah, received the homage
of the principal chiefs at Medina, and his
election was confirmed by an assembly of the
Faithful in 632 as the first of the long line
of Califs. Abu-Bekr led the Moslems in the
war which had been declared against Syria.
The triumph of the Mohammedan army was
everywhere complete, for the Persians were
routed in several battles and even a Roman
imperial army was utterly annihilated. At his
death Abu-Bekr named Omar as his successor,
and under him Jerusalem was captured.
Under his able leadership, too, Persia was
utterly subjugated, Egypt invaded, and
Alexandria captured. When Omar was
assassinated in 644, a Council of Six appointed
Othman, a son-in-law of the Prophet, to the
Califate. It was under this sovereign that th>e
text of the Koran was definitely established,
but his rule was too weak to suit the warlike
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 141
race he had been appointed to command, and
he was murdered at Medina in 656.
The various conquests made by the Moslems,
however, belong henceforth to the province of
history rather than of religion, and it only
remains to mention the two sects into which
the Faith was at an early period divided.
Mention has already been made of one of
the early converts of Mohammed, his cousin
AH. After the Prophet's death there was a
large party which believed that Ali and
not Abu-Bekr was entitled to the leader-
ship of the Faithful, and they have ever since
championed the descendants of Ali against the
orthodox califs. The members of this sect are
known as Shiites (" Sectaries"), as opposed to
the Sunnites or Orthodox Moslems. Generally
speaking, the Shiites are much stronger in
Persia than elsewhere, but they are also
found scattered through India, Egypt and
Turkey to the number of ten millions. The
theological differences of opinion, often mere
quibbles, which divide the two sects, scarcely
merit discussion here. Whatever other
divergences there may be, both Shiites and
Sunnites maintain firm and unaltered the
essential principle of recognising Allah as the
only God and Mohammed as his only Prophet.
-
CHAPTER VII
Mohammedanism continued. The Koran Its form
The psychology of Mohammed Themes dealt
with in the Koran The poetical Suras Legal
decisions Holy wars The ethics of Islamism
Commentaries on the Koran Islamic fatalism
Development of Mohammedanism Sunnites
Shiites Babism Behaism.
THE religion of some 200,000,000 Moslems
all the world over is founded upon the Koran.
This is a book about which there can be little
" higher criticism/' The revelations in it
came direct from Allah to Mohammed-
revelations which are attested by hundreds
of the Prophet's contemporaries and confirmed
by a long Arabic tradition. The Koran is
probably entitled to the claim of the
Mohammedans that it is the most widely-
read book in existence ; for it enters into the
life of the people even more than the Bible does
in a country like England, and consequently
much more, of course, than the Bible does
in the countries on the continent of Europe.
Besides, as an index to the spiritual develop-
ment of a remarkable man, the Koran has a
further claim upon our attention.
142
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 143
To state the case thus, however, is hardly put-
ting the matter before the reader with sufficient
emphasis. For something like three-quarters
of a century both the Old and the New Testa-
ments have been subjected to a strict investi-
gation at the hands of scholars, philologists,
archaeologists, and historians, and this minute
enquiry has not left the once powerful book
altogether uninjured. We can now distinguish
better between the mythological part of the Old
Testament, such as the story of the Creation,
and matters of actual fact, such as the par-
ticulars concerning Babylon. A psychological
analysis shows us what a magnificent and
virile race the Jews were about the time of their
kings, and how they had gradually degenerated
about the time when Jeremiah was permitted to
lament with the enemy at the gates. On the
other hand, the complete distinction between
the strong and masculine morality of the Old
Testament and the rather effeminate morality
of the New, led Nietzsche to suggest that it was
inadvisable to continue to mix oil and water by
continuing to bind the two Testaments together.
The morality of even the later Jewish
prophets, however, is masculine and aristo-
cratic as compared with that of the Christian
apostles, which is feminine and democratic.
144 THE RELIGIONS AND
Complaints of this nature cannot be laid
against the Koran. It did not develop in the
course of thousands of years, but was com-
posed in the lifetime of one man. True, the
impression left on the reader's mind by a first
perusal of the Koran it is somewhat shorter
than the New Testament may be one of
chaos, but the book is nevertheless an organic
unity. It represents the fundamental tenets of
Islam, a healthy morality, an adequate rule
of life. Since the quietism of the Buddhist
is influencing Europe through the theosophists,
since the modern Jews are neglecting the hard-
ness of the earlier parts of the Old Testament
for the weaker morality preached by the later
prophets, since Christianity, as is natural, is
inoculating as much of the world as it can
reach with the degenerate principles of humani-
tarianism, let us be thankful that there are many
millions of Moslems to show us a religion which
is not afraid to acknowledge the manly virtues
of war, courage, strength, and daring --a
religion which does not seek new followers by
means of cunning dialectics ; but which boldly
makes converts with the sword.
How the Koran was developed is told in
the book itself. The " mother of the book "-
i.e., the original text is in Heaven. Section
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 145
by section it was conveyed to the Prophet by
a process of " sending down " (tanzil). Some-
times the medium is an angel, called in Sura
xxvi. 193, "the spirit," in Sura xvi. 104,
" the holy spirit," and in Sura ii. 91 " Gabriel."
The Prophet repeats the revelation after the
angel and then communicates it to the world
at large.
We will teach thee to recite the Koran, nor aught
shalt thou forget. . . . Warn, therefore, for the warning
is profitable : He that feareth God will receive the
warning, and the most reprobate only will turn aside
from it. (Sura Ixxxvii.)
Nflldeke suggests that all this was but
" Mohammed's own crude attempt to show
how the ideas he put forth really took shape
in his own mind." But, in the light of
modern psychological research, this explanation
is untenable, and smacks of the scholar who
is but rarely troubled with visions of any
sort himself. Mohammed was simply gifted
with that extreme sensibility which, even in
our own cold climate, has given to many
a genius the outward aspect of a shy, stammer-
ing imbecile not to mention the periods of
nervous depression from which so many great
men have been known to suffer. Standing
in awe of the Almighty, Mohammed believed
K
146 THE RELIGIONS AND
that the divine commands came to him
through a mediator. This, however, is far
from the Christian concept of a Saviour, whose
intercession is necessary to save the souls of
his followers. Mohammed never claimed any
of the qualities which are ascribed to Christ,
who has probably suffered more through his
disciples than any other ancient prophet.
It is explicitly affirmed in the Koran that
the sacred book was revealed gradually and
not all at one time. This is particularly clear
in Sura xxv. 34, where we also find traces
of the Jewish influence under which the Prophet
had come, probably through the Hanifs :
We have given to every prophet an enemy from among
the wicked ones but thy Lord is sufficient guide and helper.
And the infidels say, " Unless the Koran be sent down
to him all at once. . . ." But in this way We would
stablish thy heart by it ; in parcels have We parcelled
out to thee ;
Nor shall they come to thee with puzzling questions,
but We will come to thee with the truth and their best
solution.
Heretofore We gave the law to Moses, and appointed
his brother Aaron to be his councillor :
And We said : Go ye to the people who treat our signs
as lies." And them destroyed We with utter destruction.
And as to the people of Noah ! When they treated
their apostles as impostors, We drowned them ; and We
made them a sign to mankind : a grievous chastisement
have We prepared for the wicked. 1
1 The "We" is the Almighty, being often represented by the
Prophet as using this royal form.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 147
The revelations issued piece by piece were
known singly as a "Koran," i.e., a reading,
a recitation, a "kitab," or writing, and a
"Sura," the late Hebrew "shuran," meaning
"series." The latter name even during
Mohammed's lifetime, came to be given to
the separate chapters of the work, the whole
being known as the Koran. The very unequal
length of the chapters has led critics to believe
that the longer ones since the short ones are
complete in themselves are merely several
revelations strung together. It is often
difficult for the student to decide how to pick
out of the longer Suras the shorter sections
which should really be placed separately; but
Rodwell, in his excellent translation and re-
arrangement of the Koran, has done this
probably as well as it can ever be done. A
few of the longer Suras, nevertheless, are
undoubtedly homogeneous, such as xx, which
deals with the history of Moses. In the
different narrations, however, the Prophet
sometimes passes carelessly from one branch
of the subject to another, or, indeed, often
to a totally different subject, and transitional
clauses are often omitted. Both Weil and
Noldeke remind us that such abrupt transitions
are also common in Arabic poetry.
148 THE RELIGIONS AND
For centuries men gravely disputed whether
Mohammed was really inspired, whether he
was a madman, or whether he was an impostor.
In one of his most brilliant aphorisms, however,
Nietzsche had dealt with the question of
madness and its influence on religious spirits.
Mohammed's prophetic ecstasy, like the
prophetic ecstasy of Nietzsche himself, who
also boldly claimed inspiration, must not be
mistaken for the ordinary insanity of, say,
an over-worked financier.
"If," says Nietzsche, "despite that formid-
able pressure of the 'morality of custom,'
under which all human communities lived,
new and divergent ideas, valuations, and
impulses have made their appearance time
after time, this state of things has been brought
about only with the assistance of a dreadful
associate : it was insanity almost everywhere
that paved the way for the new thought and
cast off the spell of an old custom and supersti-
tion. ... In our own time we continually
hear the statement reiterated that genius is
tinctured with madness instead of good sense.
Men of earlier ages were far more inclined to
believe that, wherever traces of insanity showed
themselves, a certain proportion of genius
and wisdom was likewise present something
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 149
6 divine,' as they whispered to one another. . .
' All the greatest benefits of Greece have sprung
from madness,' said Plato, setting on record
the opinion of the entire ancient world. Let
us take a step further : All those superior men
who felt themselves irresistibly urged on to
throw off the yoke of some morality or other,
had no other resource // they were not really
mad than to feign madness, or actually to
become insane. And this holds good for
innovators in every department of life, and
not only in religion and politics."
Mohammed corresponded in many respects
to the type thus outlined ; and that such a
man could be a comparatively late-comer in
the domain of religions may be easily traced to
his Arabic origin. Unmolested by the Greeks
and Romans, and interfered with only very
slightly by the missionaries of the early
Christian churches, the Arabs maintained
their healthy pagan state, as has already been
indicated, until the fifth or sixth century of
our era. The Arabs owed their good fortune
in this respect to their purity of race a purity
which the Romans had lost, owing to the influx
of the barbarians and the rise of the slave
classes under the influence of Christianity.
All the Prophet's epileptic fits were but the
150 THE RELIGIONS AND
ecstasy of an inspired feeling, and in his later
years he was able to make good use of this
power to promulgate laws for the benefit of
his subjects to which they might not otherwise
have submitted so tractably the common
people never know what is good for them.
When Mohammed, for instance, condemned
the unlimited polygamy of the Arabs and
directed that a man should not take more than
four wives, and only then if he could treat them
all with equal love and justice, he was effecting
a tremendous revolution. But it was the Word
of God ; and no complaints were made against
the pronouncements of the Prophet of God.
As to the literary form of the work, it is
fairly clear that Mohammed himself did not
write down any part of it. It would appear that
he always had someone ready at hand in Mecca
to take down his later revelations shortly after
he had " heard " them ; and this practice was
kept up at Medina, where one of his followers
was always summoned to write down the legal
decisions given by the Prophet. Sometimes,
indeed, Mohammed altered his early Suras by
having certain passages erased and others
added ; while at times, doubtless misled by
his memory, he would dictate the same Sura
in almost identical terms to two or three
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 151
different disciples. In Sura xvi. 103, we
find that unbelievers sometimes taunted the
Moslems with this: "And when we change
one verse for another, and God knoweth best
what he revealeth, they say : ' Thou art only
a fabricator.' Nay ! but most of them have
no knowledge." And it may be remarked in
passing that if Mohammed had been the mere
hypocrite and impostor made familiar to us by
the works of intolerant Christians, verses like
these would scarcely ever have made their
appearance in the Koran.
A ready answer is forthcoming from the
Prophet when he is taunted with even chang-
ing the legal decisions given in certain parts
of the Koran. God, he explains, is a despot,
who varies his commands at pleasure, regard-
ing right and wrong as merely relative and not
absolute terms. Thus, God may prescribe one
law for the Christians, another for the Jews,
and a third for the Moslems, while, if it
pleases him to do so, he will even alter
his commands to the Moslems. Therefore,
although a revelation might abrogate one
which had gone before, Mohammed some-
times permitted the earlier one to stand, in
order that his followers might be instructed
and edified by both. It has been remarked
152 THE RELIGIONS AND
that Mohammed's foresight did not extend to
the great empire which his teaching was
destined to build up ; but, on the other
hand, his revelations easily kept pace with
current events. The faithful in Medina used
often to give utterance to loud expressions of
admiration when a question of momentary
urgency was answered by a revelation just at
the right time. It would seem, too, that the
revelation coincided at times with the opinions
previously expressed by Mohammed's most
attached disciples. " Omar would expound
certain views," says a Moslem commentator
with much naivete, f< and the Koran would be
revealed in accordance therewith."
Like the books of the Bible, the different
chapters of the Koran deal with varied themes.
In some passages we find moral reflections,
meditations on the greatness of God as mani-
fested in nature and history, and condemna-
tions of idolatry. Other passages depict the
joys of Heaven and the terrors of Hell, and also
the terror of the last day, when the world is
to be judged. There are general directions for
believers, rebukes for backsliders and the luke-
warm, and there is a punishment for the enemies
of Islam. The later Suras especially deal with
legal decisions. Murder may be punished
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 153
with death or, in certain cases, by the pay-
ment of a fine to the family of the murdered
man. Thefts were punished at first by mutila-
tion, such as the cutting off" of a hand or foot.
But, in later times, the ordinary European
punishment of imprisonment, or the more
Oriental punishment of the bastinado, has
been substituted. No punishment, however,
was inflicted for theft if the property were
easy of access to the thief, or if it con-
sisted of food which a starving man took to
satisfy his hunger. The poor, it may be re-
marked, are much better looked after among
Mohammedans than among Christians, for
each man gives up a fortieth part, that is 2j
per cent., of his possessions to the poor. This
money goes into the public treasury, and
besides being used to help the needy, is applied
to the redemption of slaves. Unchastity on
the part of a woman was at first punished by
imprisonment for life, but this penalty was
afterwards altered to stoning in the case of a
married woman, and a hundred stripes and a
certain period of exile in the case of an un-
married woman. Slaves were punished less
severely. Apostasy from Islam is, according
to the Koran, to be punished with death unless
the offender comes back to the fold after having
154 THE RELIGIONS AND
been thrice warned. Severe penalties are also
inflicted for blasphemy, whether against God,
Mohammed, Christ, Moses, or any other
prophet.
Another injunction in the Koran which was
for centuries carried out on an extended scale
relates to the making of war against infidels.
A Moslem slain while carrying out a holy war
was looked upon as a martyr and admitted to
the joys of Heaven, while it was prescribed
that a deserter should forfeit his life not only
in this world but also in the world to come.
At first all prisoners taken in battle were slain
on the spot, but later on it became the practice
to give captives three choices : (i) To become
followers of Mohammed, in which case they
were at once freed and became entitled to all
the privileges of Moslems ; (2) To pay an
agreed tribute, in which case, if the religion of
the unbelievers did not include gross idolatry,
their spiritual affairs were left to themselves ;
or (3) to decide the quarrel by a further com-
bat, in which case, if the Moslems won, as they
almost invariably did, the captive women and
children were carried off as slaves, while the
men had the alternatives of being slain or
becoming Moslems. When in the course of
time cases arose for discussion which could not
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 155
be settled by appealing to the Koran for a
precedent, the few additional sayings of
Mohammed not included in the Koran were
sometimes used as the basis for a decision,
though as a rule the pronouncement of the
calif was binding. As a result of these post-
Mohammedan decisions, however, certain con-
tradictions, usually of little importance, are to
be found between the actual practice of to-
day and the spirit of the Moslem Bible.
It has often been remarked by critics, includ-
ing even scholars so different in temperament
as Sale, De Sacy, Muir, Burckhardt, and
Noldeke, that what has least changed about
Islamism in the course of centuries is its ethics.
The complete ethical system of the Koran can-
not naturally be found summed up in two or
three Suras, but must be judged from the spirit
of the book taken as a whole. Injustice, lying,
revengefulness, and avarice are all inveighed
against in the Koran, as they are by Moham-
medan preachers at the present day. The
Mohammedans of the twentieth century, how-
ever, like the Mohammedans of the seventh,
endeavour to act up to their professions.
Whether Mohammed really made use of
written sources or not for his revelations is a
question which it is scarcely possible to settle
156 THE RELIGIONS AND
now. But, in view of the many anachronisms
and misquotations scattered through the stories,
it would seem not. In one chapter, for
example, Noah is made to declaim against the
worship of certain false gods who, however,
do not appear to have been adored by the
early Jews at all, but by the inhabitants of
Mecca and the neighbouring districts in
Mohammed's own time. Many of the his-
torical sections of the Koran deal with scriptural
characters, but there are many divergences in
the quotations concerning them. For example,
Miriam, the sister of Moses, is identified with
the Virgin Mary, from which we can only con-
ceive that Mohammed entirely misunderstood
some anecdote related to him by one of the
Hanifs, or which is just as likely, that the
Hanif himself had confused what he had heard
or read. There are, however, a few passages
in the Koran which directly resemble the text
of the Old Testament. Compare, for example,
Sura xxi. 105, with Psalms xxxvii. 29, where
Mohammed quotes the sentence : " My servants,
the righteous, shall inherit the earth." Again,
Sura vii. 48, may be compared with Luke xvi.
24. But, even here, Mohammed might easily
have picked up these texts in conversation with
a Jew or a Christian, or even from some of the
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 157
Hanifs who had come into contact with Jews or
Christians. It is undisputed that Mohammed
became friendly with highly-cultured Jews
when he had resided for some time at Medina,
and it would appear that he had an opportunity
of studying some of the later Jewish writings,
such as the Talmud or the Mishna. In Sura
iv. 46, for example, we find the verse : " If ye
be sick or on a journey or have come from
the unclean place or have touched a woman
and ye find not water, then rub pure sand and
bathe your face and your hands in it," which,
as both Rodwell and Noldeke point out, corre-
sponds to one of the Talmudic ordinances. In
regard to the style and aesthetic value of the
Koran, it must be recognised that different
parts of the book are of unequal value. The
early Suras are distinguished by their passion
and their vigorous imagination, interspersed
with scraps of poetical phraseology, which
enables us to perceive why a trading community,
such as that of Mecca, should regard their
eccentric fellow-citizen as a " possessed poet."
While in places the style of the Koran is touch-
ing and impressive, much of it is decidedly
stiff, prosaic. Of course one would scarcely
expect to find the legal decisions set down with
the passion of a Hebrew prophet, but
158 THE RELIGIONS AND
Mohammed made what would seem to most
critics the grave mistake of employing a
rhyming and poetical form when dealing with
prosaic themes, such as the punishment of
theft. But we must not forget that, however
unsuitable this form of writing may seem to us
now, it had quite a different effect when recited
on Arabian soil twelve centuries ago. Both
style and matter were necessarily new to the
Prophet's hearers. Let it be agreed that many
passages in the Koran are awkwardly composed,
that the iterations are tiresome, that the
rhymed prose ambles along in a jingling fashion
now and then, these defects of language will
hardly surprise us if we always bear in mind
that beginnings are difficult, and that, however
much poetry might have been written in Arabic
before Mohammed's time, the Koran was the
first prose work. Besides, if Mohammed's
primary aim was to persuade and convince, as
we must admit that it was, we cannot deny that
that aim has been achieved on a scale undreamt
of even by the Prophet himself.
Weil would divide the Koran chronologically
into three distinct periods ; but it is not easy,
even with the help of RodwelPs notes, to draw
any sharp lines of demarcation between the
divisions. A certain broad distinction between
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 159
the Suras given out at Mecca and those written
down at Medina is tolerably clear. In Mecca
Mohammed was merely a preacher of little
importance, addressing a congregation of equally
little importance. Hence the short early Suras
are characterised by all the passion of the neg-
lected prophet, the pent-up excitement of the
man with a message. There are strange oaths
and visions, powerful advocates of the joy or
torments to be experienced in the next world.
Then come the terrible imprecations against
the Meccans for their sneers at the messenger
of God. In the second period, as the Prophet
began to gather a small congregation about him,
the glowing imagination of the Suras gives
way to arguments and proofs. References are
made to the prophets of an earlier day, and
the style gradually become less poetical. It is
to the beginning of this period that the Moslem
Lord's Prayer is assigned a touching appeal :
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE THE MERCIFUL.
Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds !
The compassionate, the merciful !
King on the day of reckoning !
Thee only do we worship, and to thee do we cry for help.
Guide thou us on the straight path,
The path of those to whom thou hast been gracious with
whom thou art not angry, and who go not astray.
Rodwell gives the following transliteration
160 THE RELIGIONS AND
of the Arabic characters as a specimen of the
rhymed prose in which the Koran is written :
Bismillahi 'rahhmani 'rahheem.
El-hamdoo lillahi rabi 'lalameen.
Arrahhmani raheem.
Maliki Yewmi-d-deen.
Eyaka naboodoo, waeyaka nestaeen.
Ihdina 'ssirat almostakeem.
Sirat alezeena anhamta aleihim, gheiri-'l nughdoobi alei-
him, wala dsaleen. Ameen.
Many of the expressions in the original
Arabic of the prayer are borrowed from Jewish
sources, in particular the word " 'rahhmani,"
meaning literally " compassioner," the Jewish
word for God during the Talmudic period.
Mohammed apparently thought of using it
instead of Allah, the name of the supreme
heathen deity worshipped by the Arabs, think-
ing possibly that, as the Arabic root "rhm,"
also meant pity, the new name would be better
understood. He ultimately gave up this plan,
but the Jewish word is often met with in the
Suras of the second period.
The third division of the Koran is that in
which we meet with the more logical arguments,
legal decisions, etc. Noldeke thinks it was
largely instrumental in promoting the faith
among the higher classes of Arabs, who were
more inclined to listen to reasoned discourses
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 161
than to the fiery words of the early Suras. 1
There are also frequent outbursts against the
Jews, with whom, as already remarked, Mo-
hammed came into contact at Medina, but
there is comparatively little concerning the
Christians, who were few in number in the
district.
After the Prophet's death began the task of
collecting the scattered fragments of the Koran.
The work was entrusted by the Calif Abu-Bekr
to Zaid, a native of Medina, who had often
acted as Mohammed's secretary. According
to the account which has come down to us,
and which is looked upon as being, on the
whole, accurate, Zaid collected the revelations
from copies written on flat stones, pieces of
leather, the "ribs" of palm-leaves, and lastly
" from the breasts of men," i.e., memory. From
all these materials he was able to compile a fair
copy of the sacred book. This he handed over
to the calif ; but in the course of time, when
other copies were made from this and diver-
gences began to creep into the text, the necessity
of having an authorised version, especially in
view of political difficulties which were impend-
ing, was urged upon the Calif Othman. The
services of Zaid were once more requisitioned,
1 For a counter-argument, -vide p. 168.
162 THE RELIGIONS AND
and with three Koraish chiefs he prepared a
canonical edition of the Koran from as many
different copies as they could gather. To pre-
vent further disputes, all the earlier codices
were burnt, an action which, however much
later textual critics may regret it, effectually
silenced all disputes as to the authenticity of
this or that text.
When issuing this new version of the Koran,
the Suras were not set down in any particular
order. The short Moslem prayer just quoted
was placed first, and is usually referred to as
the first Sura, though Rodwell makes it the
eighth in his edition of the Koran. The remain-
ing chapters seemed to be arranged on the prin-
ciple that the long Suras should be placed first
and the shorter ones last, though even this plan
was not adhered to in many instances. There
is no doubt, however, that the editors were
fully aware of the importance of their task,
and that their version is genuine. No interpola-
tions were made in the text, and apparently
nothing that really belonged to it was excluded.
When the edition had been prepared, four
manuscript copies were at once written out.
One copy was sent to Damascus, a second
to Basra, and a third to Cufa, the fourth
being retained at Medina. It is from these
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 163
four originals that all later copies have been
derived.
There was a tradition afterwards among the
Arabs that one codex had not been destroyed
by Zaid and his assistants, viz., the Obay codex.
From the few particulars we have concerning
it, however, it was apparently composed of the
same material as Zaid's edition, though the
Suras were not arranged in the same order. A
few of the different readings have been pre-
served, but they are of very little importance.
The later history of the text of the Koran is
principally concerned with the introduction of
vowel signs which it was found necessary to
add to the consonants as the Arabic alphabet
became more developed. Previously to the
use of these vowel signs, certain consonants,
closely resembling one another in outline,
would appear to have become confused.
From the first or second century of the
Flight various commentators have applied
themselves to the task of elucidating and
developing the theological and ethical systems
of the Koran. One famous early commentary
was that of Tabari (839-923), who ably
summed up the labours of his predecessors.
Another is that of Zamakhshari (1075-1144),
whose subtlety will no doubt remind the reader
164 THE RELIGIONS AND
of Duns Scotus. In the course of time a whole
literature has naturally grown up around the
book, a literature which it would almost be as
difficult a task to classify as that which has
grown up around the Bible. Two more com-
mentaries may deserve to be mentioned that
of Baidawi (thirteenth century), which is practi-
cally an abridgment of Zamakhshari's, and
that which was prepared under the patronage
of Khalaf, a tenth-century calif. It runs to a
hundred volumes.
The fatalism of the Mohammedans has been
well summed up by Baron Carra de Vaux, 1 who
divides it into three categories. The first he
designates by the name " Moral Fatalism."
Man is predestined to good or evil, Heaven
or Hell. No matter what he may do, he is
doomed to salvation or perdition, though, of
course, this does not necessarily mean that God
will save him if he commits a bad action or
condemn him if he performs a good one. This
doctrine has also been found among certain
Christian sects, such as the Jansenists and the
Calvinists. The doctrine itself is not, com-
mentators are generally agreed, to be found in
1 Art. L'hlamisme in Religions et Societet. Alcan, 1905.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 165
the Koran ; but is much more likely a survival
of the ancient paganism of the Arab tribes.
This feeling of moral fatalism, however, does
not seem to have any effect on the practical life
of the Moslems. f ( The sects which are imbued
with this feeling/' says Carra de Vaux, a have
communicated to the physiognomy of their
adherents something bitter, sombre and rest-
less, which we do not observe in the appearance
of the other Moslems, who are calm in manner
and who appear to be resigned to the will of
God rather than perturbed by the mystery of
his justice." x
The second type of fatalism is the physical ;
but this, too, is rather a popular superstition
than a theological doctrine. It is principally
concerned with the nature of the death reserved
for us : whatever you may do you cannot
avoid this fate. Take every precaution, if you
will, keep away from danger as much as you
may, at the destined hour, whatever has been
predestined to kill you will kill you. Your
precautions are vain. What is written is
written. This physical fatalism has given rise
to numerous anecdotes, and one of the tales is
common to the Arabian Nights and to Russian
folk-lore. A certain conqueror had a horse
1 Art. L'lslamisme in Religions et Societes, p, 127. Alcan, 1905
166 THE RELIGIONS AND
which he greatly loved. One day a seer told
him : <( That animal will bring you your death."
Alarmed at this, the warrior sent the horse to
one of his most distant castles, and after a time
news of its death was brought to him. Long
afterwards he happened to be staying in this
castle, and he was taken to a field to see the
bones of the horse. The conqueror laughed
at the Fates which had foretold his death
through this animal, and, to show his contempt,
kicked the head with his foot. The movement
dislodged a serpent which was lying inside the
horse's skull ; it bit the warrior, and he died
from the effects of the poison.
But there is a third fatalism, one which is
almost contained in the word Islam itself
(" resignation "). This consists in viewing
fatalism merely as a profound and intense
abandonment of one's self to God and His
Will. This is really the foundation of
Mohammedanism, and may be noted not only
in the Koran but in the works of Moslem poets
and historians, and in the demeanour of the
people at all times. As de Vaux points out at
the conclusion of one of his lectures, this con-
ception of fatalism is quite opposed to the
outlook of Western civilisation, which has
more and more, in spite of its religion, come
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 167
to look upon life as a struggle for existence, in
which reliance cannot be placed on a Supreme
Being, but on the concentrated efforts of the
individual himself to survive.
While on this subject of fatalism, however,
a strong distinction must be made between
what is understood in Europe by this word
and its signification to Orientals. It is
generally believed in the West that a Hindoo
or an Arabian thinks that all his acts are
controlled by a destiny which he cannot avoid.
The fact is that this "destiny" or " fate " is
nothing more or less than the strongly de-
veloped Eastern will. It is this innate influence,
and not an influence from any outside source,
which a man must bow to and follow in spite
of himself. It is this also that Nietzsche
referred to when he made a distinction between
strong wills and weak wills ; but it is a dis-
tinction which it is almost impossible to
convey to a European, whose will, owing to
the influence of a degenerate religion and a
degenerate philosophy, has almost disappeared.
The traveller in Thibet, Burmah, or indeed
India proper, cannot help observing Buddhist
and other ascetics who perform marvellous
feats solely owing to an enormously developed
will-power. There are numerous instances of
168 THE RELIGIONS AND
religious men, who, in an endeavour to mortify
the flesh, hold out one arm at right angles to
the body and keep it in this position for years.
There are instances of others who clench a fist,
and by the exertion of their will-power keep it
in this position until in time the nails grow
through the back of the hand.
Again, the influence of an idea on the
Oriental mind cannot be fully conceived by
the Westerner, who is so much accustomed
to rely merely upon his reason or dialectical
arguments. Napoleon himself complained that
he found it practically impossible to inspire
his European soldiers with enthusiasm through
ideas, and he more than once expressed a wish
that he had gone further east when he invaded
Egypt, put a turban on his head, and founded
a new empire. It is for this reason that I
am inclined to disagree with Noldeke, who, as
already mentioned, thought that the logical and
legal divisions of the Koran were more likely
to be listened to by the higher class of Arabs
than the fiery words of the early Suras the
fact being that only the poetical portions of the
book would have appealed to Arabs of any
class, the legal divisions being looked upon as
necessary evils.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 169
The Sunnites as we have seen, consider the
califs from Abu-Bekr, Omar, and Othman as
the true successors of the Prophet Mohammed,
while the Shiites look upon these three califs
as usurpers, and consequently their descendants
also. The Shiites do not recognise the spiritual
authority of the Sultan at Constantinople, and
they believe that Mohammed's power passed at
his death to his son-in-law Ali, whose followers
were massacred by the forerunners of the
Sunnites at Kerbela a place to which the
Shiites now make regular pilgrimages in order
to visit the tomb of the Imam Hussain. Ali's
authority descended to twelve Imams (priests),
the last of whom disappeared about the year 940.
The Shiites wept over his absence and awaited
his return some day, just as the Christians
await the second coming of Christ.
In 1 844 (the year 1260 of the Mohammedan
Calendar) a young man of twenty-five, known
as Mirza-Ali-Mohammed, declared that he was
the missing Imam Mahdi. He took the name
of Bab, meaning, in Persian, a gate or door,
i.e., representing himself as the gate through
which men would have to pass to acquire a
knowledge of God. He was, in other words,
the mediator between the Supreme Being and
ordinary mortals. Little is known about the
170 THE RELIGIONS AND
early years of the Bab. He was born at Shiraz
on 2Oth October 1819, belonging to a branch
of one of those families which claimed descent
from the Prophet himself, and are thus entitled
to special privileges. We may safely pass over
the numerous miracles which are attributed to
him, contenting ourselves with the knowledge
that when he was still young his father died,
leaving him to be brought up by an uncle, who
gave him some training in his business establish-
ments at Shiraz and Bushire (Abu-Shehr), on
the Persian Gulf. Having little aptitude for
business, however, the future Bab left his
uncle and visited the tomb of the Imam at
Kerbela, where he fell in with a sect of Shiites,
known as the Sheikhis, led by one Seyyed
Kazim, who were known among the Shiites
for the earnestness with which they looked
forward to the second coming of their lost
Imam. All their conversation bore upon this
particular point, and their prayers were directed
to this end, all of which no doubt influenced
the mind of their new and enthusiastic disciple.
Shortly afterwards Mirza became friendly with
the well-known theological student Mullah-
Hussain-Bushruzeh, another disciple of Seyyed
Kazim.
On the death of Seyyed Kazim in a few
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 171
years' time, Mullah-Hussain-Bushruzeh sought
out Mirza, who had returned to Shiraz, in
order to talk over the position of the sect.
It was then that Mirza said that he himself
was the embodiment of the missing Imam,
whose return had been awaited century after
century, and he felt himself to be the man
who was destined to abolish the ancient state
of things and prepare the way for new examples
of the divine power. The day was come, he
held, when man should be freed from the
tyranny of the priests and civil authorities and
left to follow the dictates of his own conscience,
apart from ancient commandments and super-
stitions. His friend was naturally alarmed at
this display of what may very justly be called
Moslem Protestantism, but the eloquence of
the new prophet disarmed all his suspicions,
and he began to read with much favour the
different works which the Bab had composed
during the previous two years. Amongst
these a commentary on Sura xii. of the Koran,
dealing with the history of Joseph, is one of
the most celebrated. The connection between
the new faith and the earlier forms of
Christianity will seem to a modern student to
be very close. Justice, liberty and equality were
constantly on the lips of the few followers
172 THE RELIGIONS AND
whom the Bab had gathered round him,
though, like the early Christians, they failed
to see what the consequences of liberty and
equality might be when carried out to their
logical conclusions. It was not long before
the faith began to spread with great rapidity. It
appealed to what Nietzsche would have called
the disinherited Moslems, and in a few months
the Bab was surrounded by the Persian free-
will men, who could "think for themselves"
without the help of the priests, and by the
usual crowd of penniless, landless, uninfluential
and uncultured revolutionaries, who were
charmed to hear that, after all, the priests and
prophets were not better than they ought to
be, and that they were all brothers in Allah.
Had not the Bab said so, and was not he the
missing Imam, whose appearance they and
their forefathers had awaited with such anxiety
for centuries ? Charming !
In 1845 tne Bab carried out one of the
Moslem precepts by making his pilgrimage
to Mecca, whence he returned, we are informed,
more than ever determined to undermine the
authority of the clergy and to establish
"equality/' i.e., to abolish order and harmony
and raise up chaos and disorder. While the sect
had been making progress in his absence, the
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 173
authorities became alarmed, doubtless at the
political animosities which the new theologian
was raising in the minds of the lower classes.
The command was therefore issued for the
arrest of the Bab, who was pounced upon by
a squad of infantry when he arrived from
Mecca, and taken to Shiraz. The Shah was
not particularly hostile to him, and sent a high
dignitary of the palace clergy to speak to the
young man and ascertain precisely what his
doctrine actually meant. To his surprise,
however, his messenger was persuaded by the
Bab into becoming his follower ; a fact which
seems to indicate that the young prophet
was at all events well qualified dialectically.
Irritated, not unnaturally, the Shah then
ordered an assembly of Mullahs to be held,
who, without, however, hearing the Bab's ex-
planation, declared him to be a schismatic,
and ordered him to be placed under arrest.
His followers were also subjected to certain
penalties, the most common being that of "ham-
stringing," in order that they might not be in
a condition to propagate the heresy further.
These precautions, however, proved in-
effective. The Bab was imprisoned in a
private house, but he succeeded in converting
his guards and in escaping to Ispahan. -Besides
174 THE RELIGIONS AND
this, his followers were scattered throughout
the country, and it was therefore difficult for
the Government to run them all to earth, and
the imprisonment of their leader led to renewed
agitation on the part of the Bab's followers.
Matters were allowed to drag for a time until
the death of the Shah, whose successor, being
little more than a tool in the hands of the
clergy, proceeded to adopt vigorous measures
against the new faith. Mirza wrote to his
Highness before the drastic measures proposed
by the Government were put into execution,
begging that he might be permitted to go to
Teheran and discuss publicly with the Mullahs
and the priests the theological questions at
issue. This dialectical proposal, however, the
invariable subterfuge of weak demagogues,
was rejected by the aristocratic Mullahs, and
the Shah, anxious lest the young agitator
should create a disturbance in the capital, gave
orders that he should be imprisoned in the
fortress of Maku, in the north of Persia.
These commands, however, were given out
too late to be effective. The Bab had carried
his propaganda even into every village in the
land, and the movement had gathered in force.
One of the principal intellects which had been
awakened by it was that of a woman belonging
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 175
to the pecular type whose mentality has been
partly explained to us by the investigations of
psychologists like Weininger. She was known as
Kurrat-ul-ayn ( " the consolation of the eyes " ),
and was very beautiful and well educated ; but,
it would seem, as is usual in such cases, without
sexual feelings, her womanly passions having,
in the words of a well-known German philo-
sopher, "mounted into the brain." 1
It was one of the doctrines of the Bab, as it
was of his Christian forerunners, that women
1 should be unsexed, dragged from the pro-
I tecting seclusion of the harem, and put on
an " equality " with man. Easily convinced
of the truthfulness of the Prophet's mission,
1 Kurrat willingly helped him, and undertook
a propaganda among the women of Persia.
i Gobineau in his Histoire des Religions et Philo-
sophies dans I'Asie Centrale has given a lengthy
account of the progress of the Bab, particularly
from 1848 to 1850, when the sect was closely
pursued by the Shah's troops, during which
time the Bab was once more arrested and kept
in close confinement. He was still able to com-
municate with his friends, however, and he also
revised the greater portion of his works dealing
1 The same characteristics will have been remarked by those who
have come into contact with the English Suffragists or the " emanci-
pated " American woman.
176 THE RELIGIONS AND
with the doctrines of his sect the " Biyan,"
or exposition. He explains that no revelation
is final, but that each different prophet repre-
sents the amount of truth which the men of his
time are capable of grasping. He believed that
the time had come for his countrymen to live
more strictly in accordance with the divine law,
and he inveighed at length against the corrup-
tion of the priests. A modern thinker may
find much to agree with in all this, but the
fatal defect of the Bab's doctrine is his putting
of the lower orders on a level with the higher,
and thus accentuating the chaos introduced into
Europe by Christianity. The high position
he allocates to women is also unwarranted by
certain moral and physical factors which Goethe
on one occasion referred to in rather blunt
terms.
Determined to check the progress of the
new sect, the Government had the Bab taken
to Tabriz, where, after being tried, he was
condemned to be shot on 9th July 1850. As
Moslem soldiers were afraid to execute one who
was in all likelihood a descendant of the family
of the Prophet, the work was entrusted to
Christians. The Bab and one of his disciples
were bound to pillars and the word to fire was
given. When the smoke cleared away, we are
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 177
told, the disciple was found to be dead, but
the Bab had not been touched. More : as if
by magic, the cords which bound him to the
pillar had been cut through by the bullets, and
the young prophet was free. If, as Hippolyte
Dreyfus suggests in his lecture on Babism, l
the Bab had had the presence of mind to walk
towards the crowd, then overawed by what
looked like a miracle, and urged them to follow
him, there is no knowing what might not have
happened. But he hesitated, and it was instinc-
tively recognised by, those who witnessed the
scene that this was a sign of spiritual weakness.
An officer sprang forward and cut down the
young prophet with a single stroke of his
sword, and the soldiers hastily tied the bleed-
ing figure to the pillar again. Another volley
was fired, but the bullets entered a corpse.
Later critics have suggested that the Govern-
ment, having thus disposed of the leader of
the sect, should not have troubled about his
followers, when the movement would probably
have died a natural death. But it is easy to
be wise after the event, and doubtless the Shah's
advisers acted for the best when they proceeded
to inaugurate a campaign against the Babis.
While the weaker spirits fell off, the stronger,
1 Religions et Societe's. Alcan, 1905.
M
178 THE RELIGIONS AND
as is always the case in such circumstances,
remained firm, and the faith gradually spread to
Turkey and Egypt. In 1852, however, some-
one attempted to assassinate the Shah. This
outrage was traced to a Babi who wished to
avenge the death of his leader. He had taken
a friend into his confidence, and the two dis-
charged their pistols at the Shah as he was
coming out of his palace at Teheran. They
were at once seized and put to death ; and
the incident afforded an excuse for a re-
doubled campaign of violence against the
Babis. Amongst others who were tried and
killed in the course of this campaign was the
female disciple of the Bab, Kurrat-ul-Ayn.
When the Bab's execution became known
throughout Persia, one of his best-known
followers, Sobh-I-Ezel, was appointed to
succeed him ; but the latter's half-brother,
Mirza-Hussain-Ali, was destined to exercise
even greater influence on the sect and its
progress. His father, although connected with
the Court by several strong ties, took little
interest in politics or worldly matters of any
kind, and preferred to lead a quiet life,
devoted to his books, and his studies, a
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 179
characteristic which did not descend to his
children. Mirza-Hussain-Ali was one of the
first to ally himself with the Bab when the
young prophet began to preach, and he suffered
imprisonment with his leader during the early
stages of the propaganda. When the massacres
in Persia grew to such a pitch as to call forth
much disapprobation from Europe, certain
prisoners, who would otherwise have almost
certainly been executed, were exiled, and among
them was Mirza. The Babis combined to
form a little colony at Bagdad under the
surveillance of the Ottoman Government, and
in a short time Mirza had successfully proved
his superiority over his half-brother, in spite
of the belief of the members of the sect that
all men were equal. Sobh-I-Ezel was only
too willing to relinquish his authority as leader
in favour of Mirza, under whom the little
colony prospered exceedingly.
It is then that the new leader of the sect
started to codify its principles, his object being
to efface anything of an Oriental nature from
the doctrine of the Bab, in order that a declara-
tion or confession of faith might be drawn up
to suit every nation in the world. He thus
hoped that in time the doctrines promulgated
by the Bab might spread through the five
180 THE RELIGIONS AND
continents and embrace the inhabitants of
the universe in a single religion. This
grandiose scheme was unfolded in two books,
the MSS. of which may be seen in the British
Museum. One is the Kitab-el-Ikan, or the
" Book of Certainty," the other is the Kitab-
el-Akdas, the " Book of Laws." They form
a sort of Moslem New Testament, with all the
defects that such a work might be expected to
contain. They were not, however, long in
procuring for the author the title which he
has ever since borne, viz., Beha-Allah (the
Glory of God).
In 1864 the Sultan deemed it prudent to
have the Babis moved from Bagdad to
Constantinople and afterwards to Adrianople.
Being now in Europe instead of Asia, the
religion was perceptibly changed in the direc-
tion desired by Beha-Allah, i.e., it tended to
throw off its Asiatic character. The Babis
were gradually becoming Behais. But a schism
took place. Those who viewed with some
suspicion the "liberal" ideas advocated by
Beha-Allah grouped themselves round his
deposed half-brother, Sobh-I-Ezel, and from
this moment the two sects became deadly
enemies. The distinction, trivial and un-
important as it may seem to us, was clearly
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 181
visible to those concerned. The doctrines
preached by the Bab tended to make Islam
"liberal," as the New Testament tended to
turn the degenerate Jews of the time of Julius
Caesar and Augustus into Christians. The
Bab's faith, however, remained strongly Moslem
and Shiite in character. A Holy War against
unbelievers, for example, was still preached ;
and infidels were still infidels and subject to
the restrictions imposed by Mohammed him-
self. But Beha-Allah swept away these and
other Oriental characteristics and endeavoured
to give the religion a stamp of universality,
hence the division in the ranks.
When the followers of the two sections
began to disturb the peace of mind of the
Ottoman Government, another removal was
effected. Sobh-I-Ezel was sent with his
followers to Famagusta, in the Island of Cyprus.
Beha-Allah and his party were taken to Saint
Jean d'Acre, where they arrived at the end
of August 1868. They at once set themselves,
under the direction of their energetic leader,
to sink wells and to cultivate the then barren
surrounding country as much as possible ; and
in a short time the colony was once again
thriving. They had pledged their word not
to attempt to make converts in the Sultan's
i8a THE RELIGIONS AND
dominions ; but, as they thought they would
soon make their cause known much further
afield, this did not seem to distress them. It
is on record that orthodox Moslems of the
neighbourhood did not view them with very
great favour, but that their most bitter opposi-
tion came from the most intolerant of all
people, the Christian foreign missionaries.
Beha- Allah died on 29th May 1892, leaving
his power to his son, Abbas Effendi ; but not
without having seen his faith spread into nearly
every country in the world. The propaganda
of the new religion was peaceful : indeed, the
post-office must have benefited to a consider-
able extent, in view of the number of letters,
tracts and pamphlets distributed hither and
thither by the little colony at Saint Jean d'Acre.
It is as yet difficult to speak definitely on
the future progress likely to be made by the
faith : it is of too recent growth for us to do
so. A small literature has grown up around
it in England, France, and Germany ; and it
would seem that, while Babism is practically
extinct, Behaism has come to stay for some
time yet.
The Behais, or neo-Babis, endeavoured to
reconcile the different messages preached by
the various prophets who have made their
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 183
appearance in the world. They believe that
at the proper time humanity will be combined
into one religious family, basing their conduct
on one single law ; swords will be transformed
into ploughshares, and the secret truths written
in the different religious books will be revealed
to us. To them Buddha, Moses, Christ,
Mohammed, and Beha-Allah are all emanations
from the same spirit, incarnated in successive
human forms, bringing a new message on each
occasion, but always a message based on the
same eternal principles. God is represented in
the works of Beha-Allah rather as an essence
or infinite Spirit than a Supreme Being : an
entirely indefinable something, which we can
only know by His attributes, as we know
certain things by their qualities when we cannot
grasp their substance.
Everything on earth, according to the Behais,
reflects the attributes of God, even if only to a
slight degree, but as the prophets are the most
perfect of His creatures, they reflect Him to the
greatest extent. It is on certain principles such
as these, which, broadly speaking, may be con-
sidered as common to Buddhism, Confucianism,
Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism
that the Behais profess to appeal to the whole
world, and not merely to one particular country
184 RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES
or continent. There are no special rites ; the
religion must be manifested in a person's daily
life and not in any special ceremonies. There
is therefore no sacerdotal hierarchy, for, since
all men are equal, they may all turn towards
the Almighty and worship Him in any manner
they may think fit. Since, too, all men are
equal, all wars must in the course of time cease ;
hence the invitation extended to the different
nations to enter into reciprocal relations. Any
difficult question which may crop up is to be
settled by arbitration. Men and women are to
be treated alike, and monogamy is to be insisted
upon. The charming manner of the sects may
be imagined from the Persian saying : " You
cannot drink a cup of tea with a party of Behais
without wishing to join their society."
It will thus be seen that Behaism is not so
much a collection of dogmas as a rule of life, in
which respect it may be compared to Confucian-
ism ; but surely the ironical gods must have
acted strangely indeed when they caused these
curious principles to develop as an offshoot
from Mohammedanism.
CHAPTER VIII
The Jews Their condition under the Egyptians Moses
Monotheism v. Polytheism The Israelites leave
Egypt Sinai The Ten Commandments Jewish
morality Its aristocratic nature The Promised
Land The kings The Babylonian Captivity
Toleration.
The Jewish intellect resembles the Midas of mytho-
logy : whatever it touches it turns to gold. 1
THE recorded history of Egypt goes back to
about 5000 B.C., so that when the Jews entered
the land about 1 600 B.C., they were looked upon
as coarse aliens in a country which had already
passed through several millennia of culture.
The Egyptians had built large cities and erected
huge temples, pyramids and tombs. The
priests and higher castes had become masters
of certain technical arts which the requirements
of the country called for, such as geometry,
architecture and hydraulics. Even before the
Jewish immigration they had grasped the details
of the processes connected with embalming, the
artistic modelling of gold and silver, and the
cutting of precious stones. The overflowing
of the Nile at regular intervals had led to the
1 Cornill : Der IsraelitiscAe Prophethmus, p. 15.
I8 5
186 THE RELIGIONS AND
study of chronology and astronomy, and hand-
writing was practised. At first the priests ap-
pear to have employed columns of hieroglyphics
to record on metals the deaths of their kings
and heroes, and in later times the symbols were
written on papyrus fibre. These educational
factors were eagerly taken advantage of by the
Israelites, but one Jewish tribe in particular
distinguished itself in the higher regions of
culture. This was the tribe of Levi, the
members of which, by virtue of their superior
knowledge and perspicacity, immediately made
themselves masters of everything in the way of
culture which Egypt had to afford. In parti-
cular they mastered the art of writing and the
study of the Egyptian gods, thus raising them-
selves, with the approbation of the other tribes,
to the position of a sacerdotal caste.
The Egyptians, however, resembled the
Hindoos rather than the Semites by the fact
that their religious system was polytheistic.
Their climate led to sexual excesses, and this
was naturally seen in their theology. Their
gods were endowed with the shape of the more
lascivious animals, such as the goat. The bull,
the dog, the cat and the snake were also wor-
shipped, and phallicism would appear to have
been rampant. By witnessing the excesses of
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 187
the Egyptians the Israelities were influenced
for the worse, and though they gained in culture
they lost in so far as they were induced to be-
come polytheistic and to forget the single God
of their forefathers. When a century had passed,
the Egyptians, grudging the emigrants certain
privileges denied to their own people, declared
them to be bondsmen, and set them to perform
manual labour of the coarsest description. In
order that their numbers might be decreased, a
command was given that the male children
should be drowned in the Nile and the females
reserved for the licentiousness of the Egyptians.
Formerly free in the Land of Goshen, the Jews
were now beyond all doubt in the House of
Bondage. The result was a still further for-
getfulness of the God of their ancestors, and
a greater amount of adoration for the gods of
their actual masters. They worshipped the
bull and the goat (cf. Levit. xvii. 7), and their
daughters were compelled to sacrifice their
virtue to the libidinous Egyptians (cf. Ezek.
xxiii. 7, 8). The tribes were soon split into
numerous divisions, and a historian of the period
might have been justified in thinking that the
emigrants in a few centuries would either become
extinct or would have been absorbed into the
lower classes of Egyptians.
i88 THE RELIGIONS AND
The moulding of the scattered tribes into a
single nation, which was to shake itself free
from its oppressor and make its way across
the Red Sea to a happier territory under its
own leaders ; its century-long struggle with
hostile peoples, its constant hankering after
polytheism in spite of itself, its elevation to
the higher stage of civilisation : all these things
were to come, and were destined to be due, as
all creative work is, to the single powerful
mind of one man, acting on the minds of other
men for their own benefit, exploiting, kneading,
twisting, torturing the bodies of his fellow-
countrymen, in order that they might, through
him, reach the condition of existence which
they vaguely looked for but could not attain
by themselves alone.
Of MoseSj one of the most powerful person-
alities in history, we have unfortunately but
few definite particulars. Those who have
looked at Michael Angelo's statue of him may
judge from it the extent of his forcefulness,
and may also appreciate the truth of Schopen-
hauer's saying that great men tower up above
the little men and shake hands with each other
across the centuries. Moses belonged to the
highest Jewish caste, that of the Levi, the sacer-
dotal tribe ; the tribe which had longest pre-
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 189
served the memory of its monotheism, and
was the last to be tainted with the corruption
of the Egyptian polytheism. Endowed with
a fine intellect and glowing imagination,
Moses sedulously cultivated his natural gifts
by such learning as Egypt could afford. As
the actual condition of Israel became clear to
him, he turned away in horror from the vices
and idolatry of the Egyptians, and gave
himself up to meditation as to how he could
best deliver his countrymen from the yoke
which bound them down. One day when he
saw an Egyptian unjustly punishing a Jew,
he slew the offender, overcome by passion and
wrath. Fearing to be discovered, he fled into
the desert and stopped at the oasis near Mount
Sinai, dwelling for a time among the Kenites,
a branch of the Midianite tribe. Here he
tended the herds of his father-in-law at a spot
between the Red Sea and the mountains. Influ-
enced, like Mohammed later on, by his deserted
surroundings, which accentuated and further
heightened his imagination, the prophetic spirit
of the man was gradually developed. " If
ever the soul of a mortal was endowed with
human prophetic foresight," writes Graetz,
"this was the case with the pure inspiration
and sublime soul of Moses." In the desert of
190 THE RELIGIONS AND
Sinai, at the foot of Mount Horeb, where the
flocks of his father-in-law were grazing, Moses
received his first divine revelation in other
words, long meditation on a single problem
had blossomed into religious and prophetic
ecstasy, the " epilepsy " and " insanity " of
Mohammed. Aaron, his brother, had likewise
received inspiration to go to Mount Horeb,
there to prepare with Moses for the task of
setting free the Hebrews, doubtless an early
instance of telepathy. Both men relied on the
support of God to proclaim their message to the
tribesmen. The elders and those of the higher
class eagerly supported Moses ; but the masses,
actuated by their "reason," were distrustful, and
pointed out quite naturally that they might as
well continue to be the slaves of the Egyptians
as die in the desert whither Moses proposed
to lead them. Appearing before the Egyptian
king, the two leaders demanded the release of
the Israelites in the name of Jehovah. The
sovereign, however, was disinclined to liberate
several hundred thousand slaves, who were so
useful to his own subjects ; and, accordingly,
in order to put the wish for freedom out of
their heads, he had their hours of labour
doubled. A chorus of reproaches was then
directed against Moses as the cause of this
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 191
unpleasantness ; but about this time Egypt was
suddenly afflicted by plagues. Apparently, in
so far as we may judge from the particulars
which have come down to us, the disease was
leprosy, and Pharaoh was induced to believe
that it was due to the anger of the strange
God of the Jews. Successive outbreaks of the
disease led the king to urge the departure of
the Israelites, and on the i5th of Nizan (March)
the slaves were permitted to set out.
Of this event several conflicting statements
have come down to us. According to the
Egyptian accounts, the Israelites were actually
chased from Egypt, owing to the frequent out-
breaks of leprosy, which were said to have
occurred among them, and by which the Egyp-
tians were contaminated. Flavius Josephus has
endeavoured to refute the Egyptian version of
the story, as set forth by Manethon, Cherimon,
and Lysimachus, but without much success;
and it is further looked upon as being histori-
cally accurate by Diodorus (xxxiv.), Tacitus
(Hist., xv. 3-4), Justin (Hist. Phil., xxxi. 2)
and Voltaire. Readers of the Old Testament
will be familiar with the many laws introduced
to combat leprosy ; for example Levit. x., xiii.
and xiv. ; Num., v. 2-3, and Deut. xxiv. 8.
Again, as we find similar severe laws in
THE RELIGIONS AND
the Koran, which is of course, also the work
of a Semitic race, and very little mention of
leprosy in the books of the other religions of
antiquity, it may be justifiable to assume that
leprosy was much more common among the
Semites, and that therefore there is some ground
for believing that the departure of the Hebrews
from Egypt was regarded as not altogether an un-
mixed blessing. The Egyptians, who are stated
to have killed nearly one hundred thousand of
their shepherds for spreading the dread disease,
may not have pursued the Jews for the purpose
of bringing them back as slaves, but rather in
order to kill them to a man, and thus make
sure of stamping out the disease for ever.
Once fairly on their way, the Jews were
joined by other strange tribes of Semites, who
had likewise become tired of Egyptian rule,
and it was out of this mixed crew, partly savage
and partly civilised, that Moses had to form a
nation seeking a home for them, drawing up
a code of laws, and, in short, transforming
confusion and anarchy into order and discipline.
The only helpers he could count upon were the
priests of the Levite tribe, for the men who
were following him were too much under the
influence of their slave mentality to do any-
thing for themselves. At the least sign of
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 193
danger they would give way to terror and
despondency ; they would enquire with the
sarcastic wit of the demagogue whether there
were not graves enough in Egypt that they
should be brought into the desert to die, and
they raised the usual objections with which the
herd always strives, often deliberately, more
often unconsciously, to confound the superior
intellect and drag it down to its own level.
The first destination of the wanderers was
Mount Sinai, where they were to receive laws
and precepts from the Almighty through
Moses. 1 On their way, however, they were
followed by Pharaoh, who had repented of
his unwisdom in letting so many slaves leave
the country. When the huge Egyptian host
was seen approaching, the fugitives gave utter-
ance to loud cries of despair, while the mind
of their leader rather sought a means of escape.
The party had now reached the shores of the
Red Sea, and a hurricane from the north-east
had driven the water to the south during the
night, leaving part of the bed dry. Moses
therefore urged his terrified followers across
the bed of the sea, and a safe passage was made
to the other side. The Egyptians soon hurried
1 As Graetz points out, Sinai was situated near the Land of Edom,
on the borders of the Desert of Paran, and not in the so-called Sinaitic
Peninsula.
N
194 THE RELIGIONS AND
up to the spot to wade after them ; but the
tempest had ceased, the waves rolled back, and
most of Pharaoh's troops were engulfed. This
entirely natural phenomenon is one of the
most interesting coincidences on record, and
it is hardly surprising that the old Jewish
poets and bards should have given to it a
supernatural interpretation, and ascribed the
safety of the Israelites and the destruction of
their pursuers to the alternate mercy and
vengeance of Jehovah. The event, at any
rate, confirmed the trust of the Jews in their
leader, Moses ; but it did not prevent them
from falling into despondency, as usual, at
the sight of every new difficulty, a state of
mind which did not leave them for a long
time afterwards.
On their further journey towards the moun-
tain ranges of Sinai the wanderers seemed to
be threatened with famine ; but the place of
their ordinary food was taken by manna, a sub-
stance which was found in such large quantities
every morning that the Jews naturally came
to look upon its presence as a miracle. Manna
is the name given to the honey-like substance
which was exuded from the tamarisk trees so
common in that district. The little drops
begin to form early in the morning, and attain
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 195
the size of peas before the sun's rays cause
them to melt away.
It was in the third month of the exodus
from Egypt that Moses led his party to the
highest of the mountain ranges and prepared
them, by working upon their sense of terror
and superstition, for the strange event which
was to take place in three days. Doubtless
the early training which the prophet had
received among the Egyptians enabled him
to foretell what natural phenomena were likely
to occur. On the third day, it is recorded,
a heavy cloud covered the mountain-top ;
lightning enveloped the ridge in fire, and
thunder echoed and re-echoed in the valleys
below. But this was little as compared with
the awful voice of God, conveying to Moses
the Ten Commandments which He expected
His chosen people to follow. A clear rule
of life was laid down ; and the trembling
Israelites, who had been led to the top of
the mountain as escaped bondsmen, descended
to their tents as God's righteous people
(Jeshurun). The Israelites were constituted the
teachers of the human race, and through them
all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.
Never before in the history of the world
had a few insignificant tribes been entrusted
196 THE RELIGIONS AND
with such a mighty task ; seldom indeed has
any race influenced the universe so much.
Whether we take the Christian view, bearing the
later and somewhat degenerate Jewish morality
in mind, and say that this influence has been
good, or judge the matter from the Nietzschian
standpoint and note the drawbacks, both
Christians and anti-Christians will agree in
saying that no race under the sun has ever
accomplished more. There is little need to
seek to prove the miracles recorded in the
Old Testament when we recollect this fact,
for surely it is a miracle in itself ; and another
is the survival of the Jews for the last two
thousand years. Without a country, weighed
down by persecution, oppression, prejudice,
and unjust laws, they have yet been able to
maintain their existence as an aristocratic race
in the midst of the most profound hostility
which has ever been vented on any sect. The
early Christians, persecuted by the Romans
for a few short years, could find refuge
among numerous sympathisers ; the persecuted
Huguenots could fly to England, the persecuted
Puritans could fly to America, the persecuted
Irish Catholics could fly to France ; but no
haven was ever open to the persecuted Jews ;
for every man's hand was against them. Yet
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 197
that, in spite of all this, the race has been
able to survive without being afflicted by that
intellectual degradation which always accom-
panies a mere " survival " and nothing more,
that this race has, in spite of persecution and
moral boycotting, produced a series of brilliant
authors, poets, lawyers, artists, and musicians,
is surely entitled to be ranked as another
wonder of the world, as worthy of admiration
as the hanging gardens of Babylon or the
Temple of Diana at Ephesus.
The aristocratic nature of the Jewish Com-
mandments is shown in the fact that they were
not meant for all men, but only for a select
number. They were interpreted in the light
of God's promise to Abraham to give him a
posterity :
" In blessing I will bless thee, and in
multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of the heavens and as the sand which
is upon the sea-shore," l and also to con-
sider the tribe of Abraham as His only
children, and to bind all other nations in
slavery, so that Israel should reign supreme
over the world.
It was thus the task of the Hebrews to
exterminate without pity all other peoples,
1 Genesis xxii. 17.
THE RELIGIONS AND
to seize their lands and possessions, and to
practise usury upon them (cf. Deut. vii. and
xiv.). Other similar precepts are to be found
in the Talmud, that stupendous book of the
Jewish law and custom complied by the great
Rabbana ("Our Teacher") Ashi, between 380
and 420 A.D. : e.g., "As man is superior to
the other animals so are the Jews superior
to all other men/' " Those who are not Jews
are dogs and asses." From some of the
writings of the great teacher Maimonides,
universally acknowledged by Jews all the
world over as their second Moses in point
of sagacity, penetration and wisdom, many
similar maxims could be gathered, all tending
to uphold Nietzsche's contention that there
is one morality for the masters and another
for the slaves ; and the Jews have always,
and with reason, although for the most part
secretly, regarded themselves as the masters
and aristocrats of the world.
The history of the Chosen People from
leaving Sinai is well known to every English-
man through the medium of the Old Testament,
a narrative which, from the historical and legal
point of view is substantially accurate, although
critics have long quarrelled, and will doubtless
continue to quarrel, as to the inspiration, non-
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 199
inspiration and dates of composition of the
particular books.
Under Joshua, the successor of Moses, the
Jews reached the "Promised Land," the
splendid pastoral region to the east of the
Jordan, the natives either being slaughtered
wholesale or forced to fly from the district.
The Mosaic Law fell into neglect after the
death of Joshua (about 1255 B.C.), and the
Jews became hard pressed by various tribes,
such as the Moabites, the Ammonites, the
Amalekites, and the Philistines. The hour
brought forth the men, and the efforts of
Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, and Samuel helped
in a great measure to free the harassed people
from their oppressors.
About noo B.C. the Jews had practically
reached the zenith of their prosperity and
power, and they insisted upon "being like
other nations" (i Sam. viii. 5), and having a
king. The first to exercise the regal authority
was Saul, the Benjamite, who reigned from
1067 to 1055 B.C., followed by his renowned
son-in-law, David, who held the throne (1055-
1015 B.C.) during what was probably the most
glorious period in the history of Israel. The
reign of his equally famous son, Solomon,
witnessed the complete subjugation of the
200 THE RELIGIONS AND
aboriginal inhabitants of Canaan, the boundaries
of the kingdom being extended as far as the
Euphrates and the Red Sea. Under Solomon's
rule Jerusalem was captured and made the
capital, the priesthood was re-organised on a
more magnificent scale than before, while
schools of poetry, architecture, and prophecy
were started and flourished.
A succession of monarchs followed, but not
even regal ordinances and the murmurs of the
prophets could prevent the introduction of
idolatrous practices. At last the power of
the Hebrews was successfully assailed by the
Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians ;
and Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem by storm
in 558 B.C., put out the eyes of King Zedekiah,
and carried most of the inhabitants prisoners
to Babylon. A large number of Israelites had
previously been captured by the Babylonians
in 722 B.C., and the ultimate fate of these early
prisoners has long been a matter of vague
conjecture. When Cyrus overthrew the
Babylonian empire in 538 B.C., half a century
after the fall of Jerusalem, he gave the Jews
permission to return to their own country, but
only some forty thousand took advantage of
the conqueror's clemency. This would seem
to show that the Jews were fairly well treated
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 201
during their period of captivity indeed, the
particulars which have come down to us bear
testimony to this. Five and a half centuries
before the beginning of our era Babylon had
attained to an exceedingly high stage of civilisa-
tion, and the Jews apparently benefited by it
as much as they had done centuries before
when in Egypt. In fact, Babylon up to the
year 1000 A.D., has often been referred to as
"the Second Land of Israel." Not only
were the services in the synagogues consider-
ably influenced by what was observed in the
Babylonian temples, but the early division of
the Talmud also began to take shape the
"oral law" which, as already stated, was
compiled and edited by the Rabbana Ashi
between 380 and 480 A.D.
Under the rule of Darius and Xerxes the
Jews would appear to have prospered, and even
Alexander the Great, when on his way to
conquer the East, left the inhabitants of
Jerusalem unmolested. After him came
Ptolemy Soter, one of his generals, who had
become King of Egypt. He invaded Syria,
captured Jerusalem in 301 B.C., and carried
off several thousands of the inhabitants, whom
he compelled to settle at Alexandria. This
was also to a great extent a fortunate matter
202 THE RELIGIONS AND
for the Jews, for they enjoyed equal rights
with their Greek and Egyptian fellow-subjects,
and came under the influence of Hellenistic
thought. The first thing to which the Jews
devoted themselves here resulted in the Greek
translation of the Bible, known as the Septuagint,
not to speak of a huge mass of apocryphal
literature and a composite philosophy, half
Greek, half Jewish, which was brought about
by the union of Hellenism and Orientalism.
After this the discussion of the Jewish race
belongs to the historian rather than to the
theologian. The melancholy events of the
Roman conquest, which was terminated by
the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in
70 A.D., and the demolition of the Temple,
amid horrible scenes of carnage, are but too
well known. The Jews, however, seem to
have flourished fairly well under the late
emperors until Christianity became the state
religion under Constantine the Great, after
which the era of persecution began. Even
making all allowances for the hatred which
may be engendered by religious differences, it
would be difficult for the historian, without
the aid of the psychologist, to explain the
persecutions, tortures and outrages to which
the Jews had to submit for many centuries in
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 203
Christian lands. The truth is that there can
be no toleration without contempt. Tolera-
tion, in a word, springs from contempt. In
Mohammedan countries Christians and Jews
are seldom persecuted or attacked except for
purely political reasons ; very rarely for merely
theological reasons. In other words, the Moslem
feels he is so strong in character that he can
afford to despise the members of other creeds
which may be settled near him. The Hindoo
despises the Englishman in India for the same
reason a fact which, by the way, has already
been noted by Mr Meredith Townsend. The
physically or spiritually weak, however, invari-
ably envy the stronger, hence we find that in
Russia the millions of Christians belonging to
the Orthodox Church cannot afford to tolerate
the proportionately small number of Jews
settled among them merely because the Jews
belong to a stronger race, and the Christians
cannot look upon them with contempt, which
is necessary for toleration, but only with envy,
which invariably gives rise to intolerance. I
am aware that this opinion may be contested by
a few of the obsolete schools of thought to be
found in England, but as it has the support of
practically all Continental psychologists and phi-
losophers, I feel on safe ground in expressing it.
CHAPTER IX
Indian philosophy The Jains China Confucius, his
system of morals Lao-Tze Taoism Mencius
Lack of poetry in China Japan, its early religious
system Shintoism Buddhism Bushido The
Samurai.
WHEREVER we find a religious system well
developed and capable of influencing almost
every branch of even the everyday life of a
nation, we find, as a rule, that there is com-
paratively little room or necessity for a supple-
mentary system of philosophy. Thus, the
Koran, for example, deals with so many
minute points that we find very few Moslem
philosophers setting up a different system of
thought. In the case of India, where the
wants of the people of almost every class are
so few, and where Nature has for centuries
supplied them so well, the higher castes have
had little to do but to give themselves up for
ages almost entirely to abstruse metaphysical
meditation. As a result we find throughout
India certain views and tenets which, on a
superficial examination, almost appear to be
philosophical systems. When examined more
204
RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES 205
closely, however, these systems almost always
resolve themselves into commentaries on the
Vedas or Buddhistic writings. The two
principal systems of Indian philosophy are the
Vedanta and the Sankhya. It is true that the
Orthodox Hindoos recognised six philosophical
systems (Darshana), but these six systems fall
into three pairs so closely connected with one
another that each pair may be said to form a
common school of philosophy. These are (i)
Mimamsa and Vedanta, (2) Sankhya and Yoga,
and (3) Nyaya and Vaiseshika. Mimamsa,
which is more properly known as Purva-
Mimamsa, that is, preliminary enquiry, is an
attempt at a systematic exposition of the
principles of the interpretation of scripture,
that is, of the Vedas ; or, to put its object in
one word, exegesis. Its aim is to uphold the
authority of the Vedas and to urge upon all
Hindoos the necessity of performing the duties
enjoined in them. Prof. Max Miiller was
apparently in some doubt as to whether the
Mimamsa was entitled to be reckoned as a
system of philosophy at all. The reputed
founder of the school was a seer named
Jaimini, who may possibly have flourished
about the second or third century A.D. He
might be said to hold the same position in
206 THE RELIGIONS AND
India as Thomas Aquinas does among the
Schoolmen.
Vedanta, the second system, means literally
" end of the Veda/' while it is also known
as Uttara-Mimamsa, that is, "later enquiry."
Max Mtiller, in his Three Lectures on the
Vedanta, has quoted a remark from a Hindoo
writer which serves to sum up the science of
this system. u Brahman is true, the world
is false, the soul is Brahman and nothing else.
There is nothing worth gaining, there is
nothing worth enjoying, there is nothing worth
knowing but Brahman alone, for he who knows
Brahman is Brahman.'* In other words, ac-
cording to this system, God, that is, Brahman,
is the efficient and material cause of the world.
He is both Creator and end. All things
spring from him and in the course of time are
again resolved into him. The soul of the
individual is of his essence, but it, too, returns
to him. The individual has no will of his
own, his actions being predestined by Brahma,
just as in the case of Bhagavad-Gita they are
predestined by Krishna. About the eighth or
ninth century of our era, the school of Vedantists
appears to have broken up into two sects, the
best known being that represented by a famous
Indian theologian, Sankara-Acharya. While
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 207
according to one Indian tradition he was born
about 200 B.C., he is assigned by the best
authorities to the ninth century A.D. He was
principally known for his commentary on the
Vedanta-Sutras, and also for his interpretation
of the Bhagavad-Gita. Although he died at
the early age of thirty-one or thirty-two, his
extraordinary learning gained for him a great
reputation, and he was for many years looked
upon as the incarnation of the god Siva. The
other sect of Vedantists identifies the supreme
spirit with Vishnu rather than with Siva.
The third or Sankhya system is ascribed
to Kapila, and represents the materialistic
school of Indian philosophy. The Sankhyaists
ascribe the origin of the world to a material
First Cause, devoid of all intelligence, out of
which the universe has been developed by a
process of unconscious evolution. From this
it will be seen that the third system of Indian
philosophy has much in common with the older
school of English evolutionists.
The fourth or Yoga system generally accepts
the speculations of the Sankhyaists, adding
a 25th principle to the 24th laid down by
their immediate predecessors, viz., Nirguna
Purrusha, that is cf Self without attributes."
This assumes evolution founded upon some
208 THE RELIGIONS AND
theistic principle, on which account the Yoga
system is sometimes known as the theistic or
Sesvara Sankhya. A characteristic feature of
the Yogas is their exceedingly complicated
system of ascetic practices in order that the
senses and passions may undergo a process of
mortification in such a way that a union may
be formed with the supreme spirit during one's
lifetime.
The remaining two systems, the Nyaya and
Vaiseshika, differ from one another in a few
points of little interest, but are usually con-
sidered as two branches of a single system
of philosophy, supplementary to one another
and hence generally studied together. Nyaya,
which means literally, method or rule, is
ascribed to one Gotama or Akshapada. It is
principally remarkable for its complicated
system of dialectics, which has gained for it
the designation of the Hindoo science of logic.
The Vaiseskiha derives its name from its
main premiss, that is, each separate atom
(Visesha) is possessed of its own individuality,
and that the cosmos is formed from an ag-
glomeration of such atoms. These latter two
philosophical systems are generally thought to
have arisen about the fourth or fifth century of
our era, and if we had a few clear particulars
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 209
regarding the Vaiseshika system it would be
interesting to compare it with the atomic
theory set forth by Lucretius.
Among the numerous other systems and
sub-systems of Indian philosophies, only one
calls for any special notice, viz., that of the
Charvakas or Lokayatikas, both of which
names correspond approximately to materialists.
Followers of this school admit perception alone
as a source of knowledge, deny a supreme
spirit or a soul apart from the body, and hold
that man's only aim in life should be the enjoy-
ment derived from sensuality.
There is another heterodox sect of Hindoos
which calls for some passing mention. This
is the Jains, who, although generally scattered
throughout the Peninsula, are found chiefly
in Upper India. They are comparatively few
in number, but wealthy and influential. Like
the Buddhists, they deny the divine source
of the Veda and repudiate its authority. They
agree with the Brahmanical Hindoos, however,
in recognising the caste system and also some
of the lesser Hindoo deities, but they differ
from the Brahmans in certain sacrifices which
involve the destruction of animal life. It is
their belief that not only men have souls but
animals and plants as well, and they exhibit
o
210 THE RELIGIONS AND
their kindness for the dumb creation so far
as to provide hospitals for sick animals. The
more strict members of the sect, indeed, refuse
to drink water until it has been strained, in case
they should unwittingly swallow some small
insect with it. There are two classes of Jains,
as of Buddhists : Firstly, the Sravakas, who
are engaged in ordinary employment, and
secondly, the Yatis, or monks. The latter
chiefly reside in the Jain temples, of which
there are large numbers, liberally decorated and
provided with numerous images. Like the
Buddhists, too, the Jains believe in a Nirvana,
where the soul will be freed from the sorrows
of transmigration. It seems almost impossible
now to trace the origin of this sect. Its
founder is reputed to be one Mahavira, of
noble birth, who is said to have lived about the
fifth or sixth century B.C., which would almost
make him a contemporary of Buddha. Other
authorities, however, declare that the sect did not
come into existence until about a century after
Buddha's death, forming their philosophical and
religious systems partly out of the Buddhistic
and partly out of Brahmanical tenets.
Very obscure indeed is the early history of
China. The people now known as the Chinese
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 211
seem to have invaded the country not later
than 6000 B.C., and probably centuries earlier.
Following the course of the Hoang-Ho River
they gradually settled down as agriculturists,
after having, like the Aryans in India, almost
annihilated the native population. The first
king of whom we have any connected historical
account is Yao, who "flourished " about 2500
B.C. He and his successor Shun were good men
goody-goody perhaps ; and it would appear
that they set an example of moral perfection
which all succeeding rulers who felt inclined
endeavoured to emulate. But the dynasty died
out after many years, and the sovereigns of
later times appear, to say the least, to have
been of a much more worldly disposition.
About 1000 B.C. a certain emperor named
Wu Wang divided his kingdom into seventy-
two feudal states, but the jealousy between the
different princes soon led to internecine warfare.
The Tartars also began to make themselves
troublesome, and it was in the midst of internal
confusion and the sudden descents of daring
and skilful foes that Confucius was born.
The date usually given for his birth is 551
B.C., a year when Buddha was in the prime of
life, fifty years before Heraclitus propounded
his theory of the flux, and more than a century
212 THE RELIGIONS AND
before the birth of Plato. The philosopher's
clan name was Kung, and he was known to his
fellow-countrymen as Kung-fu-tze, that is,
Kung the Philosopher, Confucius being merely
the Latinised form of the Chinese word. The
Kung family had removed to the territory of
the Lu, in the present province of Shantung,
and it was here, in the village of Chueh, that
the philosopher was born.
The death of his father left Confucius and
his mother in somewhat straitened circum-
stances, but we know that the sage married at
the age of nineteen. About this period of his
life he held some minor municipal appointments.
When he was about twenty-two or twenty-three
years old he began his career as a teacher. He
left his native place for a time and is said to
have met the other famous Chinese philosopher,
Lao-Tze, at Loh, the capital of the state. In
510 B.C. we find Confucius appointed to the
governorship of Chung-tu, where his teachings
and exemplary conduct led to a great reforma-
tion in the habits and manners of the people.
The successful progress of the state under the
guidance of Confucius, however, led to jealousy
on the part of the neighbouring rulers, and the
sovereign Duke of Chung-tu received from
the Marquis of Chi a present of handsome
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 213
courtesans, fine horses, etc. The gift had the
effect wished for, and the charm of the women
drew the weak-minded duke's attention away
from the philosopher and his reforms.
As a result, Confucius made up his mind to
travel, and departed from Lu in 497 B.C.
Accompanied by numerous disciples he is said
to have had about three thousand in all during
his life he visited many states, and his fame
as a philosopher and teacher usually made him
welcome. In 495 B.C. the Duke of Chung- tu
died, and his successor invited the sage to return
to his old surroundings, though Confucius does
not seem to have done this until 485 or 484 B.C.
His few remaining years were spent in editing
certain Chinese Classics and in the composition
of the only work which can be definitely as-
signed to him, the Chun-Chiu, an account of
the history of Lu from 722 to 481 B.C. Two
years after the last entry, or early in 479 B.C.,
the philosopher died.
After the death of Confucius his disciples com-
piled books of his say ings, anecdotes of his travels,
and numerous reminiscences of his everyday life.
We thus possess fairly complete information
regarding the great Chinese sage, and from all
that has been recorded it is a fairly simple
matter to give an outline of his moral system,
214 THE RELIGIONS AND
It has been stated in a previous chapter that
the Chinese were one of the peoples who evolved
from barbarism to a state of high culture
and civilisation without developing the idea of
a god. This statement holds true, in spite of
the fact that from very early times we find the
heavens worshipped under the name of Tien or
Ti, meaning ruler. No god, however, was
ever devised like the Hindoo Brahma or the
Arabian Allah. The worship of any superior
power is vested in the emperor as the supreme
sovereign and priest of his people, just as in
Japan the Mikado is looked upon as a descendant
of the gods.
The Chinese, even before they were conquered
by the Manchus in the seventeenth century of
our era, exhibited the typical Asiatic quality of
amenability to superior minds, as may be judged
from a saying which was current in China at least
eighteen centuries before the beginning of the
Christian era : " Heaven gives birth to the
people with such desires that without a ruler
they would fall into all kinds of disorder, and
Heaven again gives birth to the man of intelli-
gence to regulate them." The sovereign and
the philosopher are thus both sent by Heaven,
and we meet with them at every turn in Chinese
history. How far Confucius was influenced by
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 215
his predecessors it is now impossible to say,
but there is no doubt that he devoted an im-
mense amount of attention to the works of those
who had preceded him. <( The ancients," he
would say, " hesitated to give utterance to their
thoughts ; they were afraid that their actions
might not be equal to their^ words." That he
himself was not afraid to do so may easily be
observed from the respectable collection of
sayings attributed to him, no doubt justly, in-
cluding one in particular recorded by a disciple :
" Chu-wen-tzu used to reflect thrice before he
acted. When told of this the Master said,
'Twice would do.'" The whole philosophy
of Confucius may be said to be directed to one
end : to influence people in such a way that
they should recompense good with good and
evil with justice, unlike Lao-Tze, who was
hailed with delight by the descendants of the
Ebionites because he elaborated the so-called
very impractical Golden Rule : " Reward evil
with good and good with better."
During his tenure of office as Governor of
Chung-tu, Confucius took full advantage
of the numerous opportunities he had to
study men and things. Hence we find^him
expressing shrewd opinions on what con-
stitutes good government, the duties of the
216 THE RELIGIONS AND
people, the privileges of the rulers, etc.
" The people/' he says, for example, " can
be made to follow a certain path, but they
cannot be made to know the reason why."
Although in general Confucius exhibits the
vice common to all Chinese philosophers
of relying upon " facts" and " reason" more
than upon instinct, there is at least one
instance in which he shows his disbelief in
the strict type of morality which we might
expect, say, from Socrates. The example
I have in mind is the anecdote concerning
the Duke of She, who addressed the sage,
saying : (< We have an upright man in our
country. His father stole a sheep, and the
son bore witness against him." " In our
country," Confucius replied, " uprightness is
something different from this. A father
hides the guilt of his son, and a son hides
the guilt of his father. It is in such conduct
that true uprightness is to be found." Again,
the distinction between an aristocrat and a
democrat when holding office is well summed
up in the pithy remark : " The nobler sort
of man is dignified but not proud ; the
inferior man is proud but not dignified"
obviously a reminiscence of some jack-in-
office whom Confucius had observed in his
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 217
own or some other state. That he knew his
own defects as a Socratian rather than as one
of the earlier Greeks is seen in his saying :
" There may be men, I daresay, who act
rightly without knowing the reason why,
but I am not one of them. Having heard
much I sift out the good and practise it ;
having seen much I retain it in my memory.
This is the second order of wisdom. "
A surprisingly modern statement, and one
which Christian commentators have apparently
overlooked is : " It is the man that is able
to develop his virtue, not virtue which
develops the man." Another anti-socialistic
opinion is found in the anecdote : " The
Master wished to settle among the nine
eastern tribes. Some one said : ( How can
you ? they are savages/ The Master replied :
' If a higher type of man dwelt in their midst,
how could their savage condition last?' 1 In
modern times, of course, it is the lower spirits
which are trying to drag down the higher to
their own level, and in only too many cases,
unfortunately, they succeed. Like the
writings of all Chinese philosophers, the
works of Confucius are set forth in an
anarchical fashion ; there is no attempt at
order or arrangement, and the student is left
2i8 THE RELIGIONS AND
to read through apophthegm after apophthegm
to discover the kernel of the teaching. Apart
from the good-for-good and justice-for-evil
regulations already referred to, the wisdom
of the great sage has been summarised by one
of his followers almost as well as it is possible
to do so : " The Master said : Shen, a single
principle runs through all my teaching/ Tseng
Tzu answered, ( Yes.' When he had gone
out, the disciples asked, saying : ( What does
he mean ? ' Tseng Tzu said : f Our Master's
teaching simply amounts to this : loyalty to
one's self and charity to one's neighbours : '
So greatly have the maxims of Confucius on
government and morals influenced the rulers
of China that the reigning emperor does
homage to him twice a year in the Imperial
College at Pekin, while the descendants of the
great philosopher bear the title of Kung (Duke),
and own a large amount of property. In spite
of the attempts of the Student-Missionary
Legge to saddle Confucius with a belief in a
superior being and a future life, the fact
remains that there is no justification for this.
The sayings of Confucius have exercised a
1 Mr L. Giles, in his Sayings of Confucius (Wisdom of the East
series), was the first European to give a correct interpretation and
translation of this apophthegm.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 219
wide and profound influence throughout China
and Japan for centuries ; but they form a
system of morality and not a religion in the
modern sense of the word. Of course, for
the purposes of a modern thinker, there is
no difference between "religion" by which is
usually meant merely the ritual and dogmas
of a faith and the system of morality it
advocates, and there is therefore no reason
why Confucianism should not be treated as
a religious system, but it certainly cannot be
called a religion as we should apply this word
to faiths in which deities are introduced, as,
for example, Brahmanism or Mohammedanism.
Although Confucius was a man of a fairly
high order of intellect, he nevertheless did not
possess the creative faculty in any marked
degree, but a Chinese philosopher who did,
and who actually founded another " religion,"
was Lao-Tze, some of whose sayings, thrown
at the reader in the usual haphazard Chinese
fashion, are much more aristocratic than those
of Confucius. Lao-Tze devised Taoism, or
"the way," which, in a greatly corrupted
form, shares with Buddhism and Confucianism
the distinction of being one of the three great
religions of China, and which at times is so
subtle as almost to merit the praise of being
220 THE RELIGIONS AND
Machiavellian. Indeed, since Lao-Tze was
born at Loh, not far from the present city
of Loh-Yang in Ho-nan, in 604 B.C., it is
not too much to imagine that some of his
opinions may have circulated as far as Greece,
in time to be picked up by Aristotle, who was
not born until nearly two centuries later,
and in whose works Machiavelli found many
hints for his Prince. Among the numerous
legends which were not long in gathering
about Lao-Tze, the most remarkable is that
he was carried in his mother's womb for
eighty years, hence his name, which means
Old Son, or, as at least one English critic has
irreverently suggested, the Old Boy. Very
few particulars of his life have come down to
us, and we do not even know the date of his
death. That he met Confucius about 517 B.C.
seems to be tolerably well established.
Taoism as a system of morality at the
present day has been, like Shintoism in Japan,
greatly corrupted by Buddhism, and its pursuit
of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of
life, together with many other superstitions
which have gathered round it, are very far
removed indeed from the teaching of its
founder. In form, Lao-Tze's doctrines
resemble those of Confucius, except that they
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 221
are, as already mentioned, rather more aristo-
cratic. Tao, a word which it is almost
impossible to define fully and accurately, refers
to " the way " in which things first came into
being out of primordial nothingness, and how,
without struggling or striving, the phenomena
of nature still continue. There should also,
according to Lao-Tze, be no striving in the
life of man, in order that things may come to
a successful issue without effort, which is the
rule laid down for all human action, or rather
inaction. The secret of government is to let
men alone as much as possible. While un-
doubtedly the right ideal at which to aim, this
is enough to drive the modern democratic
sociologist quite frantic. " The empire has
ever been won by letting things take their
course. He who is always doing is unfit to
obtain the empire." A very true saying, when
properly considered ; and how much above
the grasp of a man like Herbert Spencer, with
his " Life is activity " ! " It is not," says Lao-
Tze, " practise inaction, occupy yourself with
doing nothing. Leave all things to take their
natural course and do not interfere. Tao is
entirely inactive, and yet it leaves nothing
undone."
Truly Nietzschian is one of his last dicta :
222 THE RELIGIONS AND
" They who know me are very few, and on
that account my honour is the greater."
Those who look forward to the extinction of
evil will hardly be comforted by the
apophthegm : " Among mankind the recogni-
tion of beauty, as such, implies the idea of
ugliness, and the recognition of good implies
the idea of evil." What would a hard-headed
Liberal say to this : " In ancient times those
who knew how to practise Tao did not use it
to enlighten the people, but rather to keep
them in ignorance. The difficulty of governing
the people arises from their having too much
knowledge. Fishes must not be taken from
the water : the methods of government may
not be exhibited to the people. If the people
do not fear the majesty of government a reign
of terror will ensue." But the Tory squire
and the grasping capitalist employer should
equally lay to heart the statement : " Do not
confine the people within too narrow bounds ;
do not make their lives too weary. For if you
do not weary them of life, then they will not
grow weary of you." Another commentary
on democracy and socialism, and the
consequent fussiness and interfering which
they inevitably bring about, may be found in
the dictum : " As restrictions and prohibitions
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 223
multiply in an empire the people become
poorer and poorer. When the people are
subjected to overmuch government, the land
is thrown into confusion. The greater the
number of laws and enactments the more
thieves and robbers there will be. Therefore
the sage says : ' So long as I do nothing, the
people will work out their own reformation.
So long as I love calm, the people will right
themselves. If only I can keep from meddling,
the people will grow rich. '
Only one other Chinese philosopher calls for
special mention, viz., Meng-Tse, better known
in his Latinised form of Mencius. He appears
to have been born in the province of Shan-
tung about 372 B.C., which would make him
a contemporary of Plato and Aristotle. His
mother, we are told, brought him up so well that
she has ever since been held up as a model for
Chinese women. From the little that is known
about the life of Mencius, we gather that
he studied Confucius and originated a very
practical, almost Socratian, philosophy for the
regulation of human conduct. When about
forty years of age he led his followers from
place to place in the endeavour to find a ruler
who would put into practice his theoretic
system of government. Not finding one,
224 THE RELIGIONS AND
however, he withdrew into retirement and
died about 289 B.C. His conversations and
sayings were collected by his disciples and cir-
culated extensively after his death, and it must
be acknowledged that in the last two or three
centuries his doctrines have exercised much
influence on Chinese ethics, though they are
not very closely adhered to where the govern-
ment of the country is concerned. His system
is based on an almost ludicrously touching
belief in the innate goodness of man.
According to this teaching, man should collect
and utilise the virtues of benevolence, wisdom,
and propriety, which come out of his goodness ;
for if this were done both individually and
collectively the result would be a liberal and
enlightened political system. There is one
characteristic at least which Mencius shared
with modern socialists and democrats his
intense desire for the education of the people,
without considering the ultimate purpose of
such a training, or how far it might be utilised
for the benefit of the truly cultured and intel-
lectual men, who must always be necessarily
few in number.
It has often been asked why China has given
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 225
us no fine poetry or inspiring literature, but
merely systems of morals based on more or
less shrewd observations. The proper answer
is doubtless that supplied by Gobineau, viz.,
that the Chinese have always been very
materialistic in their requirements. With a
few cotton rags as clothing, and a dish of rice
as food, most of their physical and intellectual
wants are satisfied. They have always been
too lukewarm to design a high morality or
creed, with the necessary accompaniment of
a deity who punishes those who fail to live
up to the noble ideal and rewards those who
do, such as the Babylonian Bel, the Hebrew
Jehovah, or the Mohammedan Allah. Their
system of morals has never been tinctured by
anything resembling a deep faith. Its human
origin was but too well known, and the maxims
of Confucius or Lao-Tze might be taken or
left at the will of those who heard or read
them. There was no question in either case
of reward or punishment from a supernatural
source, and thus no great inducement either
to heed or to show indifference. A superficial
and lukewarm morality of this nature being
purely atheistic, the conception of a deity was
not necessary to enforce it upon the people.
As a consequence, in all the long history of
226 THE RELIGIONS AND
China, we do not find a trace of religious wars,
such as the Crusades, or of religious persecu-
tions such as those which disgraced both
Protestants and Catholics about the time of
the Reformation and long afterwards, merely
because in China there was no definitely-held
faith, and therefore nothing to fight for. But
the conception of a deity, or more than one,
together with the high morality or moralities
accompanying such a conception, is absolutely
necessary for inspiring men with those deep
feelings which find their expression in noble
verse.
While also to some extent applicable to
Japan, these remarks are not so entirely, for
in the younger country the introduction of
the Samurai caste, surrounded as it was by
its almost mystic halo of nobility, may be
said to have partly taken the place of a
supernatural power, though of course on a
very much lower plane, a plane which was not
even high enough to produce a Japanese Calvin
or a Melanchthon, much less a Mohammed or
a Moses.
Japan is probably the youngest of the great
Oriental nations, and, in view of the rather
mechanical nature of the minds of the in-
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 227
habitants, one or two Continental thinkers
have somewhat unkindly dubbed it " the
England of the Far East/' The earliest
documents in Japanese pertaining to the
history of the country date from the eighth
century of our era ; so that many Popes had
filled the See of Rome long before a single
historical Japanese document was in existence.
It has virtually been established that the
dominant Japanese tribe came from the
Western Peninsula. Yamate (Island) was
the district which gave birth to the tribe which
by its skill and daring produced the Mikado
system, and it was through this tribe that
Japanese history assumed its present form.
Like the Romans in Europe, the Yamate
men advanced and conquered, actuated, as
they believed, by a divine command. Their
feudal system of organisation, and their well-
planned campaigning arrangements, gave
them an enormous advantage over the untrained
hunters and fishermen whom they met, and
they completed their conquest by imposing
their superior religious system on the conquered
nations. Their chief, or Mikado, was, they
said, born of the gods, while their enemies
were merely sprung from the earth. All
worship was therefore concentrated upon the
228 THE RELIGIONS AND
Mikado, who was regarded as the earthly
representative of the sun in heaven.
The religious system of this conquering
tribe has always been somewhat loosely referred
to as Shintoism. Shinto is the Chinese character
representing the Japanese phrase Kami-no-
Michi, meaning the " Way of the Gods," i.e.,
theology. Shintoism in its pure form had no
trace of an ethical code, idol worship, priest-
craft, or any conception of a future state. Its
principal divinity was the sun-goddess, Amate-
rasu, from whom the Mikado is supposed to
have descended. The creed has no sacred
books, and its temples are practically destitute
of any adornment, although there is a certain
amount of ritual. Trees, rivers, rocks, moun-
tains, fire, and other natural objects are " wor-
shipped," but the main feature ot the creed is
ancestor worship if, indeed, we can use the
words "creed" and " worship" in connection
with what many critics deny to be a religious
system at all. It has been pointed out, with
some justice, that Shintoism is a means of
government rather than a religion ; and its
chief purpose is the upholding of the Mikado
dynasty. As one of its main features is the
worship of the Mikado and his acknowledg-
ment as the descendant of the gods, the faith
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 229
is naturally confined to Japan, or rather to
Japanese subjects. This primitive belief held
its ground in a pure form until about 550 A.D.,
when Buddhism was introduced into Japan
from China. Shintoism almost at once came
under the influence of the Indian religion, and
is at present hardly distinguishable from it, more
especially as there are no fewer than thirty-five
sects of Japanese Buddhists.
Apparently it was not until the introduction
of Buddhism in the middle of the sixth century
of our era that an attempt was made to formu-
larise the doctrines of Shinto, and to set them
down in written form ; but these ancient docu-
ments concerning the creed can now only be
read by special scholars, even among the Japanese
themselves. They are :
1. The Kojiki, or notices of ancient things,
setting forth the doctrines in the style of the
Bible. These documents may indeed be called
a sort of Shinto Bible.
2. The Manyoshu, or Myriad Poems, ex-
pressing the thoughts and feelings of the ancient
Japanese, and giving us a certain amount of
information concerning their manners and
customs, and describing a few important events
depicted by poets and artists.
330 THE RELIGIONS AND
3. The Norito, which describes the active
side of the religion.
While Shintoism is to some extent supported
by the Japanese Government, the masses of the
people are Buddhists. Indeed, the popular
classes draw so slight a distinction between the
two faiths that both Buddhist and Shinto
temples are attended without discrimination.
The higher classes are, generally speaking,
atheistic, and endeavour to model their lives
on the precepts of Chinese philosophers such
as Confucius, Lao-Tze, and Mencius. One of
the main reasons why Shintoism has retained
its hold on Japan for so long is to be found in
the love shown by the Japanese for the works
of nature and for their own country. When
the people, through Shintoism, are worshipping
a rock or a stream or a tree, they are worship-
ping at the same time nature, their fatherland,
and their emperor. The simplicity of the
ceremonial may be seen in the only instrument
of worship in a Shinto temple, viz., a mirror.
It typifies the heart which, if calm and peace-
ful, is the image of the deity although,
indeed, it is thought that even this was an
innovation introduced by Buddhists shortly
after the arrival of the monks from China.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 231
Critics, however, are not unanimous on this
point.
What Europeans usually associate with Japan
is not Shintoism, Buddhism, or Taoism, which
is also one of the minor Japan religions, but
Bushido. Bu-shi-do means literally Military
Ways, that is, the manners which the fighting
nobility are called upon to observe in their daily
life. In other words, the regulations of Bushido
are simply the precepts of knighthood, the
noblesse oblige of the Japanese warrior caste.
It may, perhaps, be best compared to the chi-
valry existing in Europe in the Middle Ages.
When Bushido was definitely inaugurated in
Japan, about the twelfth century, a class of pro-
fessional warriors naturally came into promin-
ence, as was also the case in Europe with the
introduction of feudalism. In Japan these
warriors were known as Samurai, i.e., guards or
attendants. As the result of numerous and
severe campaigns of fighting, the weak and
degenerate succumbed^ thus leaving only the
strong and healthy warriors to carry on the
Samurai caste, so that the way was paved for
a certain Samurai philosophy, viz., Bushido.
There is no written code, but there is on the
other hand a long oral tradition. Much of
this warrior philosophy has been traced to the
232 THE RELIGIONS AND
sayings of the three Chinese philosophers
already referred to in this chapter. Continual
stress is laid upon justice, courage, the ability
to bear pain and misfortune. Bushido was
never sought by the Samurai as an end in itself,
but as a means to the attainment of wisdom.
This was conceived of as identical with its practi-
cal application to life, summarised in the maxim :
" To know and to act are one and the same
thing." The training tended to inculcate
politeness and truthfulness, so much so that
the mere word of a Samurai was assumed to be
a sufficient guarantee for the truth of an asser-
tion. It also encouraged mercy, especially
among equals ; but there was no weakness or
humanitarianism. It was among the Samurai
that the legalised mode of suicide, Hari-Kari,
first came into prominence, though this, since
the abolition of feudalism in 1868, has become
practically obsolete. While commonly looked
upon as merely suicide, accomplished by dis-
embowelling, Hari-Kari was really more than
this, as it was a kind of religious and legal
ceremony. The practice hardly calls for dis-
cussion here, being merely an offshoot from a
system of philosophy for which there is now no
further need, but the student who is interested
in customs of this nature may find it worth
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 233
while to compare the views on suicide held
by the ancient Greeks, and also Nietzsche's
chapter in " Thus spake Zarathustra " regarding
voluntary death.
As for the remarkable influence of Bushido
on the national life of the Japanese, an observa-
tion by Nitobe in his work on Bushido is worthy
of note in these democratic days : " As England
owes all her liberty, law, art, and literature to
the upper classes, so does Japan owe everything
to the Samurai. They were not only the flower
of the nation, but its right hand as well. All
the gracious gifts of Heaven flowed through
them. Though they kept themselves socially
aloof from the populace, they set a moral
standard for them and guided them by their
example."
CHAPTER X
Minor Asiatic Religions The Babylonians
Zoroaster Parsees Hittites Mithraism
So far as diversity of population is concerned,
Babylonia, the Shinar, Babel, and "land of
the Chaldees," of the Bible, and now the
modern Arabian province of Irak-Arabi, may
be described as the U.S.A. of ancient Asia, and
evidence to this effect is forthcoming from both
sacred and classical writers. From the earliest
of the inscriptions hitherto discovered, which
date back to about 7000 B.C., it would appear
that the most primitive inhabitants of the
country belonged to the Ugro-Finnic branch
of the Turanians, and, in addition to the lingu-
istic evidence, statues which have recently been
unearthed show that the early inhabitants had
the true Tartar type of features. It would
seem, too, that a Semitic element was soon
introduced into the population. According to
the Biblical narrative, Noah begat Shem about
2448 B.C., but the Semites date from a much
earlier period than this ; for the race emigrated
from Arabia into Mesopotamia about 4500 B.C.
234
RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES 235
But numerous wars and extended commercial
development introduced many other elements,
and certainly about 4000 B.C., Babylon itself
was a famous, highly-civilised, and prosperous
city. How far this civilisation dates back
before the period mentioned can now only be
conjectured, though the patient researches of
antiquaries are bringing forward fresh evidence
year by year. The expedition sent to Baby-
lonia in 1888, under the auspices of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, unearthed a temple
which was shown to have been erected not later
than 7000 B.C. But a temple presupposes a
highly-developed religion. The stone whorl
in the British Museum, inscribed with the
name of Sargon I., King of Akkad, is gener-
ally assigned to a much later date, 3800 B.C.
Other tablets testify to a well-thought-out
form of government about 6000 B.C., and,
apart from the evidence afforded by Herodotus
whose veracity is more and more sustained
by every fresh discovery which has been made
sufficient stones and tablets remain to give
us a very fair conception of the essentials of
the life of the people who inhabited this part
of Asia fifty centuries ago.
Apart from Babylon, other celebrated towns
and cities had come into existence in Babylonia
236 THE RELIGIONS AND
at a very early stage. One of the most ancient
is Eridu or Eri-dugga ( " holy city " ), which
in early times was a part of the Persian Gulf,
though alluvial deposits have in the course of
centuries filled up much of the northern part of
the Gulf. Probably Eridu came into promin-
ence even earlier than Babylon, for it was
doubtless here that some wandering tribe
entered Chaldea from the East. The most
primitive indications of the spiritual side of
the people show us that fetishism was the sole
nature of their worship, but, with the arrival
of the invaders from the East, water-gods came
into notice. We find deities referred to in
inscriptions as " Lord of the waves/' " King of
the ocean/' " God of rivers/' and later on these
titles vary to " Lord of wisdom," (< the All-
knower," and " God of Laws." The supreme
divinity of the sea was the God Ea, a legend
concerning whom is recorded by Berosus, a
Babylonian priest, who flourished about 200
B.C., and wrote in Greek a history of his
country, several fragments of which have
come down to us. Ea, the legend runs, arose
from the sea, to teach man the elements of
civilisation. He appeared regularly every
morning, his bright halo dispelling the mists
and driving away the darkness, and every
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 237
evening, when his task was done, he returned
to his throne far away on the horizon, giving
place once more to obscurity and gloom. The
god held no direct communication with the
people, but they heard his voice in the waves
as they dashed upon the beach, and they felt
his breath in the breezes. A remarkable ana-
logy is suggested to us by an inscription saying
that people sitting in their gardens at even-
tide heard the god talking to them in the
wind ; for it at once suggests Gen. iii. 8 :
" And they heard the voice of the Lord God
walking in the garden in the cool of the
day," In the old hymns we find traces of
Ea communicating with mankind through his
son, Mardugga ( " holy son"), a name after-
wards corrupted into Merodach or Marduk.
Ea, too, had a consort, Dav-Kina, who personi-
fied the earth as her lord personified the sea ;
and water and earth were the elements out of
which the entire cosmos arose. The couple
had a son Tammuz ( " the soul begotten"),
who is identical with the Merodach just
referred to. Tammuz also had a consort,
Istar, and the worship of these four deities
continued throughout many generations. The
serpent is mentioned in the hymns of the early
Babylonians as he is in Genesis. There is
238 THE RELIGIONS AND
perpetual conflict between the day and the
night. The serpent holds the earth in his
coils. Then the bright god rises in the east
and darts a ray of light like an arrow the arrow
of Apollo being an analogy which will readily
occur to the student. The serpent is struck
and a golden-red blood begins to flow. The
coils which have held the world in darkness
slowly unfold, admitting the bright sun-god.
" The victor/' says the old chronicle, <s crushes
in the head of the serpent. " Hours elapse and
the victor makes his way towards the west,
while the serpent again appears. It is his turn
this time, and the horizon is once more stained
with blood as the setting sun sinks slowly out
of sight. "It shall bruise thy head/' says the
writer of Genesis, centuries later, " and thou
shalt bruise his heel."
As civilisation advanced throughout the
country other and more local gods arose. We
find, for instance, a certain Mul-lil, the older
Bel of the Semites, sacred to the city of Nipur
(the modern Niffer). One of his descendants
is the moon-god, whose sacred city was Ur,
and his worship spread even to Syria and
Arabia. It is in Ur ("light") that we find
the first traces of the Semites in Babylonia,
and the city will always be held sacred as the
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 239
home of Terah, the father of Abram, the father
of the Jews.
We find the moon-god worshipped under
various names, the most important being
"Aku," the disc, "Nannar" or " Nannak,"
the bright one, and " Sin," the bright this
root being also found in Sinai and the wilder-
ness of Sin. The worship of the moon, as
is generally the case among wandering tribes,
preceded the worship of the sun, so in early
Semitic mythology we find the moon repre-
sented as the father of the sun. Recently-
discovered fragments have enabled us to
decipher the hymns sung and the liturgy
employed in some renowned temple which
was probably used as a place of worship even
by the ancestors of Terah. Many phrases
occur in them which were repeated twenty
centuries later by the Hebrew psalmists. The
sun, for example, " comes out of his chamber"
in old Babylonia " like a wife pleased and
giving pleasure," as he does in almost similar
words in Psalm xix. 5. He spreads bright
light, "his name is in all mouths," he is a
" banner," and his strength, like Samson's, lies
in his bright locks and beard.
Many of these local deities disappeared in
3800 B.C. when Sargon I. became king and
240 THE RELIGIONS AND
endeavoured to unite the different cities into
one compact empire. This consolidation was
triumphantly carried out by one of his suc-
cessors, Cammurabi, who proclaimed himself
King of North and South Babylonia and made
Babylon his capital about 2200 B.C. From
this time Babylon flourished more than ever :
schools, libraries, and observatories were built,
and scholars, priests, and jurists made the city
their headquarters. But more important still,
from a religious point of view, was the fact
that the local god of Babylon was elevated
into the position of a national deity, as King
Asoka was destined to elevate Buddhism two
thousand years later. The local god was
Merodach ; but he now assumed the attributes
of Ea and of Bel, " the Lord of the world," being
henceforth known as Bel-Merodach. We shall
find him referred to as Belus in our Herodotus,
while Strabo and Diodorus also make mention
of him. But from now on we have more
information about the history of Babylon than
about its religion. Despite many revolts and
successive captures, we know that until about
560 B.C. Merodach was worshipped and revered
by the Babylonians, but about this time the
people seemed to become careless in their
religious beliefs. Inscription after inscription
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 241
bears the phrase " Bel came not forth," tending
to show that the images of the gods were no
longer brought out for the annual procession.
Nabonidus, the father of Belshazzar, and
the last of the native Babylonian kings, was
of a vacillating and easy-going disposition, and,
like the Ahasuerus mentioned in the book
of Esther, cared more for voluptuousness
and antiquarian research than for attending
to his nominal duties as a ruler. In his zeal
for forming large collections of antiquities,
he secured for the great temple of Bel in
Babylon various statues from the smaller
cities representing local deities. From the
point of view of the modern historical and
philological student, this was an admirable
practice ; but at the time it had two very
bad effects. In the first place, the local
priests were indignant at the loss of their
idols, accompanied, as it naturally was, with
a diminution of their local prestige, while the
priests of Bel-Merodach in Babylon were
incensed at the introduction into the temple
of a number of strange idols and gods their
anger extending in course of time to Bel-
Merodach himself, who, when forced into
competition with other deities, withdrew his
protection from the city. The immediate
Q
242 THE RELIGIONS AND
result of this was a spirit of revolt whic
gradually spread through the country and
caused the Babylonians to look for some one
to free them from their unpopular king.
The anger of the god extended to his son,
Belshazzar, who was also marked out for
destruction, and was in fact assassinated in
538 B.C., when Babylon fell into the hands
of the great Persian, Cyrus. Nabonidus him-
self died a week afterwards, and the conqueror
was hailed as the restorer of the old religion, to
which it appears Cyrus was tactful enough to
lend his countenance.
In connection with this revolt and the entry
of Cyrus into Babylon, the student will be
struck with a curious fact, one of those
numerous incidents where we see history
repeating itself. The Persian king wanted
money for the expedition, and before the
war could be undertaken a great Babylonian
banking house was appealed to for funds.
This is, of course, the modern procedure also ;
but the remarkable analogy is the fact that
twenty-five centuries ago, as at the present
day, the bankers thus appealed to were Jews,
just as the modern conqueror might find it
necessary to consult the Rothschilds. The
Babylonian firm concerned was that of Ikibi
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 243
Bros., which name is the exact equivalent of
Yakob, i.e., Jacob. Among the numerous
bonds connecting the East and West, I have
thought it worthy to put on record this
curious historical fragment of such human
interest.
While the influence of the Babylonians on
the Jews is dealt with more particularly in the
chapter on Judaism, one analogy between the
peoples may be mentioned here. Merodach,
as will have been observed from the withdrawal
of his protection from Babylon when other
deities were brought into the city, was a
jealous god like Jehovah. The Babylonian
temples corresponded in a great measure to
the synagogue, and even the Babylonian feast-
days bore a great resemblance to the Jewish
feast-days. Indeed, even the arrangement and
decoration of the temples corresponded ; and
the Jewish rite of circumcision was long a
Chaldean custom. Lenormant and Sayce,
in their various works dealing with the
monuments of antiquity, have thrown much
light on another item connecting the Baby-
lonians with the Jews, viz., the Tower of
Babel. Babel is the Assyrian Bab-ili, " the
gate of God/' the Semitic rendering of the
name of the Accadian town Ca-Dimira, " Ca,"
244 THE RELIGIONS AND
meaning (< gate,"and"Dimira," "God". 1 While
Berosus makes no mention of the story, George
Smith, the well-known Assyriologist, found
a cuneiform inscription which, when deciphered,
appeared to be almost identical with the
narrative in Genesis xi. The " Father of the
Gods/' whose anger is aroused against the
builders, is Bel in this inscription ; and it
is conjectured, with much plausibility, that
the story of the Giants and Titans of Greek
mythology has been derived from this Assyrian
story of the Tower of Babel, the essential
facts of the legend being doubtless conveyed
to Greece by the Phoenicians. It is at all
events practically certain that the site of the
tower was somewhere in or near Babylon.
Most critics regard it as being identical with
the ruins of Birs Nimroud in Borsippa, a
suburb of Babylon, which was dedicated to
the God Nebo, mentioned in Isaiah. This
temple or tower had remained unfinished for
many generations until Nebuchadnezzar at
one time proposed to complete it. A legend
would naturally grow up around the half-built
tower, and the number of languages spoken
in the Mesopotamia!! plain would be easily
1 Before philology began to be properly studied, the explanation of
Babel was that it came from the Hebrew babbel, meaning to confound ;
but no scholar would now put forward this derivation.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 245
accounted for by saying that the god had
confounded the original tongue spoken by
the people to punish them for attempting to
scale the lofty path leading to his throne.
When we come to sum up the religion of
Babylonia, we are somewhat at a disadvantage.
We have, from the records of classical writers
and recently discovered inscriptions, a fairly
large mass of material dealing with the history
of the people ; but we cannot answer the
question which Nietzsche would have asked :
What were their standards of moral values ?
The few particulars we have about their local
deities and their supreme god tell us very
little. We can judge from their having so
much in common with the Jews that they
were originally a strong and noble race, but
they undoubtedly declined, and Gobineau,
who has probably studied the question of
races more thoroughly than any man before
him or since, has given us the reason in one
word : intermixture. It is useless for theo-
logically-minded critics to point to long years
of prosperity and immorality as the reason
why a race should begin to degenerate :
Gobineau insists, and rightly, that sexual
246 THE RELIGIONS AND
immorality may be a sign of strength as much
as of weakness, and that prosperity will not
spoil a nation so long as the blood remains
pure ; but once let the castes become mixed,
or lower races become allied to the higher
through marriage, and the end is in sight.
Among the minor religions and philosophies
of Asia, Zoroastrianism, the religion of the
Parsees, claims a prominent place. Its teach-
ing is contained in the Avesta, which, like
the Rig- Veda, is a collection of documents
of uncertain age, such as the Gathas, the
Yendidad, the Yashts, etc. Of these the
Gathas seem to be the oldest, but, as in them
the Creator of Nature is worshipped as well
as Nature herself, it would seem that they were
not written down until the ancient Parsees,
whose religion they represent, had reached a
high degree of culture. Zoroaster 1 himself
appears as an historical personage in the
books of the Avesta, and he is said to have
" flourished" about 2500 B.C. At first the
teaching seems to have been monotheistic,
and only one deity is mentioned, the Ahura-
Mazda (Ormuzd), but the principle of the
philosophy arising out of this teaching was
dualism. There were said to be two
'The Greek form of the Persian name Zarathustra.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 247
primordial causes of the real and spiritual
world, the Vohu Mano, i.e., Good Mind or
Reality (Gaya), and the Akem Mano, or
Non-Reality (Ajyaiti.) The teaching of
Zoroaster flourished throughout Upper
Thibet, Persia, and the north-western
provinces of India until the time of Alexander
the Great, when it declined rapidly, and is
now confined principally to a few classes of
Hindoos. The followers of this creed are
" enjoined to be liberal in thoughts and
deeds, pious and religious in ceremonial
rites, truthful and honest in their dealings,
active in destroying evil, industrious in
cultivating land, persevering in the education
of themselves and others/' x The Par see must
not eat anything which is cooked by a person
of another religion, and marriages must be
contracted within the limits of their own castes.
As Ahura-Mazda is the origin of light, his
symbol is the sun, or, in default of the sun,
the moon and the stars, or, if all these are
wanting, fire of any kind. All Europeans
who have had any dealings with Parsees in
India or Persia pay the highest testimony to
their character for honesty, industry, and
peacefulness ; while they are well known in
1 The Teachings of Zoroaster, by S.A. Kapaclia.
248 THE RELIGIONS AND
the East for their benevolence and charitable
works. One of their characteristic features is
the strikingly handsome appearance of both
men and women, indicating a long period of
evolution.
Another faith of some importance in the
history of the East is that of the Hittites, but
unfortunately we possess as yet few definite
particulars of them beyond what can be
gleaned from the Old Testament, and the
few fragmentary Hittite inscriptions which
the researches of archaeologists have so far
brought to light. We know, at all events,
that the Hittites waged war against the
Egyptians and the Assyrians for more than
a thousand years ; and they seem to have
moved with the Israelites from the time of
Abraham to the period of the Babylonian
captivity. By putting together the results
of the various inscriptions discovered, it
would seem that the Hittites ruled over what
was, for that epoch, a mighty empire, as early
as 3500 B.C. an empire which did not come
to an end until 717 B.C., when Sargon IL,
the Babylonian king, captured their city of
Samaria. While there is something to be
said about the Hittites from the point of view
of the historian, there is, unfortunately, little
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 249
to be learned for the information of the
theological student, although Prof. Sayce,
Mr Thomas Tyler, the Revd. W. Wright and
others give good reasons for thinking that
the name of the Hebrew God Jehovah came
originally from a Hittite source. It would
appear, however, that the sun was worshipped,
and also, but not to so great an extent, the
moon. A strange feature of this religious
creed, however, is the worship of the eagle,
for that there was a cult of the eagle among
the Hittites has been virtually established
from the most recently discovered inscriptions
and coins. Another strange emblem observed
on Hittite stone tablets is a triangle, which,
a few critics have conjectured, not without
some plausibility, represented the conception
of a Trinity, each corner standing for some
particular deity. Until further inscriptions
are discovered, however, and what is even
more to the point, accurately deciphered, it
would be very unwise to push conjecture
further.
A third faith which deserves a paragraph
or two is Mithraism. It is particularly
interesting to the classical student in that it
appears to have been introduced into Rome
in 68 B.C. by some prisoners whom Pompey
250 THE RELIGIONS AND
had taken in battle. It rapidly spread through
the whole empire, as is amply proved by the
large number of Mithraic statues, inscriptions,
and bas-reliefs discovered at various times.
Mithra, who appears in many Persian in-
scriptions as Mithras, and in the Rig-Veda
as Mitra, is generally taken to represent
the sun-god or god of light, and is usually
looked upon as invariably fighting on the side
of what is right, against certain other gods
who struggle on behalf of evil. Take, for
example, the following quotation from the
Rig-Veda.
It is the voice of Mitra that leads us men, Mitra
sustains earth and heaven ; Mitra, with eyes that close not,
watches over our tribes, to Mitra pour the fat oblation.
That man is blessed, O Mitra, who duly serves thee :
none can slay him, none can overcome him ; whom thou
dost guard, evil shall not reach him from far or near.
Approach with reverence the great Aditya, the leader
of men, who is so kind to the sinner ; to him, Mitra the
Wonderful, pour into the fire the loved oblation.
To Mitra our five tribes go for help, and he sustains
the gods, Rig-Veda, iii. 59.
We usually find Mithra represented on
statues as a handsome youth, generally sitting
on a bull, into whose neck he is plunging a
dagger. A scorpion, a serpent, a raven and
a dog are also represented in these scenes, all
with their allegorical meaning, which un-
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 251
fortunately, owing to the destruction of all
the documents connected with the creed by
the followers of Mohammed, we cannot now
decipher. Indeed, traces of Mithraism have
been discovered in England, where it was
doubtless introduced by the Roman soldiery.
The followers of this faith were undoubtedly
a serious menace to the propagation of
Christianity throughout the Roman Empire,
as is evident from the writings of the early
Fathers. At length, in the year 378, it was
ordered to be suppressed, and, although Saint
Jerome, writing several years later, speaks of
it as still being practised, it was not long
before the last trace of it had been swept away
from both the eastern and western divisions
of the later Roman Empire.
CHAPTER XI
Summary and conclusion East and West The
influence of Asia on Europe.
THE connection between religion and govern-
ment may be well observed in one of our great
Eastern possessions. England holds and
administers India ; but, all politics apart, a
great mistake has been made in endeavouring
to rule an Eastern possession in accordance
with Western and so-called " Liberal " prin-
ciples. The Asiatic differs from the European
in almost everything ; but there are few more
striking differences than the respective views
of the two continents on government. Japan
has to some extent Europeanised herself ; but
it must not be inferred from this that the
Japanese are satisfied with European methods
of government, or that Indians would likewise
be satisfied with them.
It will not be denied that English thinkers
have influenced European forms of government
to a very great extent. It is to Locke, for
instance, rather than to Voltaire and Rousseau
that we must really ascribe the French Revolu-
252
RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES 253
tion ; for the two French writers were pro-
foundly influenced by the English one. But
the democratic principles advocated by English
thinkers, while admirably adapted to the slow,
careful English temperament, resulted in scenes
of extraordinary horror and butchery when
carried out to their logical conclusions by
the more ardent and impetuous Frenchmen.
Similarly, the modern Englishman, having
been brought up under a constitutional govern-
ment, and being accustomed to elect members to
represent his interests in a House of Commons,
thoughtlessly believes that this is the ideal
system, and cannot conceive that millions of
people would prefer to be ruled by an auto-
crat if they had their own way in certain other
directions. " Gouverner," says a witty French
writer, Henri Maret, " c'est embeter le
monde " (to govern is simply to annoy every-
body). In other words, Western methods
of government inevitably tend to interference
in the domestic concerns of the governed ; the
government becomes a system of petty annoy-
ance. The Curfew edict can be more than
matched in the England of our own day
with the laws which prohibit children from
entering a public-house, which forbid the
selling of tobacco to boys under sixteen, which
254 THE RELIGIONS AND
call upon parents to send their children to
school, which examine our houses to make
sure that they are sanitary, and which, amidst
hundreds of other items, call for the registra-
tion of births, marriages and deaths.
Now, to an Indian, all this sort of fussy
legislation is anathema. The Oriental cares
nothing for his neighbour, and it is simply
impossible to explain to him the Christian law
that he shall love his neighbour as himself.
He cannot understand why this should be
so, and with some reason. In the case of a
common enemy, such as a tiger impelled by
hunger to approach the nearest village, he will
willingly agree to join his neighbours for the
purpose of defence. He will likewise join them
for purposes of attack, if it be to his advantage
to do so. Here, however, his relationship
with his neighbour comes to an end. Every
man is master in his own house. If he thinks
it necessary to send his children to school he
will do so ; if not, he will keep them at home.
But he cannot understand that, in Western
countries, thousands of men whom he would
never see should, by the simple process of
voting, which also puzzles him, send men to a
place called a House of Commons, there to
decide on matters intimately connected with
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 255
his own family, such as the schooling of his
children and his own hours of labour. In all
matters of this sort, indeed, the Oriental is
actuated by the most aristocratic individualism
it is possible to conceive. He is willing to
tolerate any form of government but an inter-
fering one, i.e., a " reforming " government.
How is this seen in his religion ?
After all, the view set forth by Nietzsche
must never be lost sight of: religions are
invented for the purpose of protecting and
perpetuating a certain type of man. Moham-
medanism was obviouslyjnvented for the benefit
of the virile ; Christianity for the benefit of
the weak. But it may be just possible that, as
the Greeks were forced to restrain their exuber-
ance by the most tragic drama in all literature,
so may the Indians have been compelled to
curb their military ardour by the invention of
a nihilistic religion. Obviously the primitive
Aryans must have been one of the greatest
races of conquerors the world has ever known,
else how could they have travelled thousands of
miles and subjected every nation they met
with, finally establishing on a firm foundation
a system of government and religion which has
endured for thousands of years ?
The difference between the two great nihi-
256 THE RELIGIONS AND
listic religions, Buddhism and Christianity, has
already been touched upon, but it deserves to
be reiterated. The European critic may say
that Christianity has succeeded in brightening
the lives of millions of men and women and
helping them in their struggle through the
world, i.e., the doctrines of the Christian faith
have secured the preservation of a certain type
of man. The modern biologist, however, who
considers the matter from a philosophical point
of view, will be inclined to ask, Was this type
worth preserving, more especially at the cost
of the restrictive penalties imposed on higher
minds by the logical outcome of Christianity?
What is there to compensate for the rise of a
slave caste in Europe, with the resultant eleva-
tion of all the lower elements above the higher,
or for the sentimental frame of mind engendered
to such an appalling extent, especially in
the northern countries, by "love," which is
purely a Christian invention ? The rise of
the slaves under Christianity, to which was
due, even more than to the influx of the
barbarians, the fall of the Roman Empire, is
surely hardly atoned for by the production of
democratic upstarts, temperance societies, and
foreign missionaries. Still, this religion of
ours came from the East and is one of the
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 257
influences exercised upon Europe by Asia.
Christianity springs from two Jewish sects,
the Essenes and the Ebionites, and, as the
latter name comes from a Hebrew word
meaning "poor," it may easily be guessed
where all the sneering sayings at rich men in
the New Testament originated. Few teachers,
indeed, have suffered more from their disciples
and followers than Christ, for whose real
opinions some of which are very unlike those
in the authorised books of the New Testament
we must go to the writers of the Apocrypha.
But this religion, derived from late Jewish
sources, has been counteracted even in Europe
by a Hellenic influence, to which we owe the
preservation of men like Dryden, Voltaire,
Shakespeare, Goethe and Schopenhauer, to
pick out only a few names at random ; and it
may seem strange to suggest that the people
who fought unweariedly to keep Hellenism
alive in Europe were the Jews ; but such is
nevertheless the fact. We know that thousands
of Jews were forced to settle in Alexandria
three centuries before the beginning of the
Christian era. There they came under the
influence of Greek culture, and when in later
times Alexandria became the seat of Greek
learning, the Jews were destined to make this
258 THE RELIGIONS AND
culture their own, and to uphold the noble
traditions of Greece against the nihilistic
doctrines of the Christian Church.
From the aristocratic standpoint, as opposed
to the democratic outlook and the equality of
man laid down by Christianity, what we owe
to the Jews must never be forgotten. While
Christian teachers were mistaking the nature
of philosophy and making it a mere appendage
to theology, 1 the Jewish thinkers were deep in
the study of Aristotle and the pre-Platonists.
It was from Maimonides, for example, that
Thomas Aquinas, who might almost be called
the re-creator of the aristocratic Roman Catho-
lic Church, obtained the main principles of
his famous Summa, although in this borrowing
the aristocratic nature of the Jewish ecclesi-
astical polity was necessarily transformed into
a more democratic one. The beneficent
influence of Judaism is still further shown by
Spinoza, the direct philosophical descendant
of Maimonides, to whom men like Disraeli
and Heine owe much, and of whom Goethe
and Nietzsche have both spoken in warm terms
of gratitude.
Another great teacher who exercised an
1 On this point see more particularly Anti-Pragmathmt t by Albert
Schinz, Paris, 1909 ; and Aspects of the Hebrew Genius, Art, Aristotle
and Jewish Thought, by Dr A. Wolf.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 259
enormous influence on the Christian Church
was the Mohammedan, Averrhoes (Ibn Roshd),
born in Spain in 1126. He translated and
annotated Aristotle, and his doctrine of the
Universal Reason certainly shows the influence
of Alexandrian and neo-Platonic teaching.
His pantheistic doctrine of the unity of the
active principle in the universe caused quite
a controversy in the fourteenth century, and
astrology, which seems to have been much
associated with his name, has added to our
language the word Averrhoism. When on the
subject of Arabian influence in Europe, it may
also be worth while reminding the reader that
it is to the Arabs that we are indirectly
indebted for our numerals, though these
undoubtedly came to us from India.
Apart from the Mohammedans and Jews,
however, India has undoubtedly exercised
an enormous though indirect influence on
European thought. The works of several
Greek philosophers who lived five or six
centuries before the Christian era such as
Thales, Pythagoras and Heraclitus show us
that problems connected with the origin of the
universe and the development of man were
discussed with much critical acumen on the
shores of the Mediterranean even before the
260 THE RELIGIONS AND
birth of Buddha or Confucius. One remark-
able doctrine which is worthy of especial notice
is that laid down by Thales about 600 B.C.,
viz., that water is the original principle of all
things, from which everything proceeds, and
into which everything is again dissolved. A
pupil of Thales, Anaximander, whom we can
trace as having "flourished" about 570 B.C.,
said that all living things had developed out of
non-living slime, and that there was a time
when man was a fish. Again, Empedocles
definitely stated so early as 450 B.C., that in-
numerable forms were engendered by the
crystallisation of the primitive elements, and
that of these a large number perished because
they were unfitted to survive an old anticipa-
tion of the doctrine, which seems so modern
to us, of the struggle for existence. Not long
afterwards we find Leucippus putting forward
the atomic theory, viz., that the universe is
built up of tiny particles. The origin of all
these theories, however, does not seem to have
been Greek, but Indian ; for we certainly find
traces of them in old Indian and Persian litera-
ture ; so that even Darwin has been anticipated
by some nameless and unknown Brahmanic
thinker who may have lived thirty or forty
centuries ago. In this connection it must not
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 261
be overlooked that Pythagoras certainly wrote
about the doctrine of the transmigration of
souls about 560 or 550 B.C., and this is a
theory which is certainly not Greek, but
Indian, in its origin.
Those of us who have read through the
fragments of the early Greek historians will
have observed numerous references to the
curious race known as the Scythians, upon
whom the researches of modern investigators
have thrown comparatively little light. It was
long believed by ethnologists that they were of
Mongolian origin, but the latest investigations
certainly tend to show that they were Aryans.
They evidently wandered from the north of
Persia to the shores of the Black Sea and
thence into Greece, while about 700 B.C. we
find traces of them in Egypt. There seems to
have been also an Asiatic branch of the huge
tribe, which, it is significant to note, was a firm
supporter of Buddhism in the early stages of
the faith, from which many critics have sought
to prove that Buddha himself was of Scythian
descent. On this point, however, no definite
statement can be made, but there seems to be
no doubt that the Scythians brought with them
into Europe a great deal of the Brahmanical
learning, which probably exercised no little
262 THE RELIGIONS AND
influence on the minds of those Greek thinkers
who came into contact with them.
The influence of Egyptian culture on Europe
has never yet been fully appreciated. 1 There
is no doubt that the Jews of Alexandria were
strongly influenced by all branches of Egyptian
learning, which itself, in its later stages, was
likewise considerably influenced from Eastern
sources. While, unfortunately, Egypt has left
us no literature which can be compared with
that of Greece or Rome, there is no doubt that
the sculpture and art developed on the banks
of the Nile were much superior to those arts as
developed in Greece. In view of the fact that
Englishmen have for generations been brought
up to look upon Greek sculpture as the highest
of all types, such a statement will no doubt
sound heretical, but it has already been strongly
advocated by competent critics in Germany
and Italy, and an Egyptian Renaissance, if
Englishmen can ever be induced to take an
interest in it, will undoubtedly upset many of
our pet theories regarding sculpture and art.
It is difficult to say with certainty what influ-
ence the idea of a Messiah had in buoying up the
Jews in the course of their long struggle, but no
doubt it was very great. So profound is their
1 "Egypt : the Alma Mater of civilisation," says Lafont.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 263
belief that a Deliverer will one day be sent by
Jehovah to restore their country to the power
and splendour which it exhibited during the
reign of David and Solomon, and to compel
the Gentiles to acknowledge the superiority of
the Chosen People, that not all the discoveries
of modern science or all the mass of learning
which goes by the name of the Higher Criticism
can eradicate this fixed belief from their souls.
This Deliverer is to be sent to the Chosen
People, and to them only, which tends in a
great measure to explain why the Jews refrain
from making converts among other races. No
people has ever striven so hard to keep its
type pure, and this is one great lesson which
modern European nations fail to learn. It is
clear that even the downfall or what practi-
cally amounted to the downfall of the Brahmans
at the time of Buddha was due to their
neglecting this precaution. Probably the most
illuminating sentence in the Brahmanic writings,
and one upon which many a moral text could
be hung, is this : " The castes became mixed."
In other words, the higher classes intermarried
with the lower, the Aryans with the aborigines,
and the result was a degradation of the race.
Though this had not gone very far, however,
is shown by the fact that Brahmanism was able
264 THE RELIGIONS AND
to reassert its superiority and finally to drive
Buddhism out of India. But the priests were
now allied for purposes of defence and not
attack. No ethnologist can read through the
Laws of Manu and fail to be impressed by the
penalties imposed for the crime of marriage
between the higher and lower castes. Com-
paratively gentle at first, the punishment
increases in severity ; and we can see that
through long centuries every effort was made
to check what, even in those early times, was
clearly recognised as race degeneracy. There
is a modern assumption, particularly prevalent
in the United States of America, that by inter-
marriage among different nationalities a new
and strong nation will eventually arise. The
wish in this case is certainly father to the
theory ; for a more noxious combination of
races, or rather tribes, than those in the United
States of America it would be difficult to find.
This theory, however, is merely an echo of the
exploded assumptions underlying the views of
the English evolutionists of the nineteenth
century, all of which amounted to saying that
if people were left to develop themselves, no
matter in how chaotic a manner, the best would
nevertheless come to the surface, and were, in
fact, already there ; a view which set at rest
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 265
for ever the consciences of grasping landlords
and sweating capitalists. The more scientific
investigations of Continental thinkers, how-
ever, have shown that evolution must be
directed towards some clearly-defined end
though this is hardly a matter which calls for
discussion in this work.
To sum up our investigations, it will have
been observed that religion is largely a matter
of temperament and environment, and that,
as temperaments change in a race, owing to
degeneracy or other causes, the religion of the
race will also undergo certain modifications. It
is impossible to hold up one form of religion
and to say that it suits all men equally well.
All the struggles between the Catholics and
Protestants in the north and south of Europe
have simply been due to the fact that the
Southern temperament cannot and will not
put up with the asceticism, anti-sexuality, and
so on, which are so well suited to the cloudy
and muddier spirits to be found in the
Northern countries. It has also happened
many thousands of times that individuals are
born in Christian countries who, when the
effects of their own particular heredity make
themselves felt, develop temperaments which
are diametrically opposed to the average of the
266 THE RELIGIONS AND
temperaments by which they are surrounded,
although they may belong to families which
are nominally Christian. All rarely gifted
spirits are possessed of these exceptional
temperaments, and they are naturally acutely
disliked under the intolerant regime of
Christianity. Such men were Napoleon, who
has long been a victim to misrepresentation
and slander on account of his very natural
amorous propensities, and also Shakespeare,
who suffered the terrible fate of being mutilated
by Dr Bowdler. Another victim was Byron,
to whom burial in Westminster Abbey was
refused (although it was granted to Darwin,
who had led the English upper classes of
his time to believe that everything was for
the best in this best of all possible worlds) ;
Shelley, who was expelled from Oxford merely
because his opinions were three-quarters of
a century in advance of those held by the
authorities of the University ; Gibbon, who
has been severely censured for venturing to
hint that Mohammed was more worthy of
admiration than Christ, and but the list
might be extended indefinitely.
What, then, is our final word ? Shall we
strain the vocabulary a little and say, with
Pythagoras, our 'avrlxOwv ? Merely this : that
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 267
the religion of men of inferior intellects must
be prescribed for them by the higher order
of men, and not, as is usually the case at
present, vice versa. The Roman Catholic
priest, who thinks for his flock, is a much
more noble figure than the Methodist preacher
whose congregation " think for themselves."
It is gratifying to observe that the Church of
England is every year approaching more and
more closely to the Church of Rome in this
particular respect. But Christianity itself must
not be imposed on higher spirits who do not
want it. If only the Brahmanical caste system
could be introduced into Europe and maintained
in a pure form for three or four thousand years,
as was the case in India, then indeed would it
be time for us Europeans to apply to ourselves
the words written in a spirit of irony, perhaps
of a famous English poet :
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting,
The soul that rises with us our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar,
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE following is not by any means a complete
list of all the authorities I have consulted, but
is merely intended to bring to the notice of
the reader a few of the comparatively recent
books dealing with the religions under dis-
cussion :
RACES, PRIMITIVE MAN, ETC.
Bossert, A., Schopenhauer. Paris, 1904.
Gobineau, J. A. de, Sur PInegalite des races humaines.
Paris, 1853-55.
Goldstein, Dr F., Urchristentum und Sozialdemokratie.
Zurich, 1899.
Jedlicska, J., Die Entstehung der Welt. Vienna, 1903.
Lafont, G. de, Les Aryas de Galilee. Paris, 1902.
Lampert, K., Die Volker der Erde. Leipzig, 1902-3.
Mortillet, G. de, Le Pre'historique. Paris, 1900.
Much, M., Die Heimat der Indorgermanen. Leipzig,
1904.
Muller, J., Uber Ursprung und Heimat des Urmenschen.
Leipzig, 1 8 .
Oliviera-Martins, J. P., As Ra$as humanas. Lisbon, 1881.
Reclus, E., Les Primitifs. Paris, 1903.
Rosny, J. H. de, Les Origines de THomme. Paris, 1895.
Sabatier, L. A., Esquisse d'une Philosophic de la Religion.
Paris, 1897.
269
270 THE RELIGIONS AND
Sanson, A., L'Espece et la Race en biologic. Paris, 1900.
Tille, A., Von Darwin bis Nietzsche. Leipzig, 1895.
Townsend, M., Asia and Europe. London, 1905.
BRAHMANISM
Davis, J., The Bhagavad-Gita. London, 1882.
Dhirendranatha, Pala, Religion of the Hindoos. Madras,
1903.
Haigh, H., Leading Ideas of Hinduism. London, 1903.
Havell, E. E., Benares. London, 1905.
Jones, Sir W., Laws of Manu. London, 1880, etc.
Kreyher, J., Die Weisheit der Brahmanen. Leipzig, 1901.
Milloud, L. de, Le Brahminisme. Paris, 1905.
Muir, J., Translations from the Vedas. Edinburgh, 1870
(privately printed).
M filler, Max (and others),The Rig- Veda. Oxford, 1 849-74.
Muralidhara, Raya, Sree Krishna. Madras, 1901.
Petersen and Bhandarkar, Hymns from the Rig-Veda.
Bombay, 1905.
Phillips, Maurice, The Teaching of the Vedas. London,
1895.
Phillips, Maurice, Evolution of Hinduism. Madras, 1903.
Phillips, Maurice, The Bhagavad-Gita. Madras, 1893.
Sankara-Acharya, Compendium of the Raja Yoga Philo-
sophy. Calcutta, 1901.
Whitney, W. D. and Lanman, C. R., Atharva-Veda.
London, 1905.
Venkataratnam, Lammadi, Hebrew Origin of the
Brahmans. Madras, 1901.
BUDDHISM
Beal, S., Dhammapada (Texts from). London, 1902.
Falke, R., Buddha, Mohammed, Christus. Leipzig,
1896-7.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 271
Feer, ., Etudes Bouddhiques. Paris, 1873.
Fraser, A. T., The Drift of Buddhism from India.
London, 1905.
Lafont, G. de, Le Buddhisme. Paris, 1895.
Lorenzo, G. de, India e Buddhismo antico. Milan, 1904.
Schreiber, M., Buddha und die Frauen. Leipzig, 1903.
Smith, Vincent A., The Edicts of Asoka. Oxford, 1909.
Smith, Vincent A., Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor.
Oxford, 1909.
Wurm, H., Der Buddha. Leipzig, 1880.
JUDAISM
Baudissin, Wolf Wilhelm F. von, Studien zur Semitischen
Religionsgeschichte. Leipzig, 1876-8.
Cornill, Prof. Carl H., Der Israelitische Prophetismus.
Strassburg, 1905.
Funk, S., Die Juden in Babylonien. Berlin, 1902.
Geiger, Ludwig. Judenthum und seine Geschichte.
Breslau, 1865.
Geiger, Ludwig, Quid de Judaeorum moribus scrip.
Romanis persuasum fuerit. Berlin, 1872.
Graez, Dr Heinrich, Geschichte der Juden. Leipzig,
1850, foil.
Jeremias A., Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten
Orients. Leipzig, 1904.
Marti, C., Geschichte der Israelitischen Religion. Strass-
burg, 1903.
MOHAMMEDANISM
Amir, Ali, Spirit of Islam. Calcutta, 1902.
Caetani, L., Annali dell' Islam. Milan, 1905, foil.
Carra de Vaux, Baron, Islamisme en face de la civilisation
moderne. Paris, 1905.
272 RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES
Contenson, L. de, Chretiens et Musulmans. Paris, 1901.
Dods, Dr Marcus, Mohammed, Buddha and Christ.
London, 1877.
Gregory (Bar Hebraeus), Specimen Historiae Arabum
(edited by Pocock). London, 1806.
Mariano, R., Buddismo e Cristianesimo. Milan, 1890.
Muir, Sir W., Life of Mahomet. London, 1877.
Muir, Sir W., Mahomet and Islam. London, 1887.
Muir, Sir W., Some of the Sources of the Koran.
London, 1901.
Muir, Sir W., The Caliphate. London, 1899.
Pizzi, L'Islamismo. Milan, 1903.
Tisdall, W. St C., Original Sources of the Quran.
London 1905.
BABYLON, CHINA, ETC.
Chamberlain, B. H., Ko-ji-ki (Asiatic Society, Yokohama
Academy). Tokio, 1874, foil.
Fossey, C., Manuel d'Assyriologie. Paris, 1904.
Giles, Lionel, Sayings of Confucius, The. London, 1909.
Griffis, W. E., Religions of Japan. London, 1895.
Hammurabi, King of Babylon (edited by C. Edwards),
The Hammurabi Code. London, 1904.
Legge, Dr James, Confucius' Life and Teaching.
London, 1887.
Nitobe, J., Bushido. New York, 1905.
Plath, H. von, Confucius und seine Schiller. Leipzig,
1867.
University of Pennsylvania, Expedition to Babylonia.
1888-1890. (Pubd., 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1898.)
INDEX
AKU, the moon-god, 239.
Alexandria, 257.
Allah, see Mohammedanism.
Anaximander, 260.
Apocrypha, the, 257.
Arabs, their early religious system,
98 ; their purity of race, 149 ;
what Europe owes to, 259.
Aryans, rise of, 12 ; antiquity of
their language, 2 ; their wan-
derings, 12 ; development of the
tribe, 14.
Asiatics, their recognition of higher
minds, 214.
Asoka, King, his protection of
Buddhism, 86 j his Buddhistic
Council, 87 ; the Edicts of,
88 ; his propagation of Budd-
hism, 91.
Averrhoes, his influence, 259.
BABEL, the Tower of, 244.
Babism, rise of, 172 ; the Bab's
early years, 170; his prophecies
and works, 176 ; Babism com-
pared with Christianity, 171 ;
its motley following, 172 ; arrest
of the Bab, 176 ; Babism and
women, 175 ; doctrines of the
sect, 176 ; execution of the Bab,
177 ; attempted assassination of
the Shah by Babis, 178 ; perse-
cution of the Babis, 174; emi-
gration of the Babis to Bagdad,
179 ; codification of the Bab's
doctrines, 179 ; separation from
the Behais, 180.
Babylon, commercial development
of, 235 ; early deities of, 236;
captured by Cyrus, 242 ; finan-
cial influence of the Jews in,
242 , influence of, on the Jews,
201, 243.
Babylonia, primitive inhabitants
of, 234 ; consolidation of, by
Sargon I. and Cammurabi, 240.
Bacchanalia, early Indian, tee
Soma.
Belshazzar, assassination of, 242.
Behaism, its tenets, 183 ; its uni-
versality, 184; removal of the
sect to Saint Jean d'Acre, 181 ;
the industry and progress of the
sect, 182.
Berosus, 236.
Bhagavad-Gita,the basis of popular
Hinduism, 43 ; meaning of,
43 ; comparison with the New
Testament, 44 ; main theme
of, 45 ; its conception of the
cosmos outlined, 48 ; its con-
ception of man, 49 ; its views
of the caste system, 50 ; com-
parison with the Koran, 53.
Brahma, mythological account of,
15 ; as supreme Hindoo deity,
3-
Brahmanism, the confusion of its
theological system, 33; its
principal deities, 34 ; threatened
by Buddhism, 57.
Brahmans, rise of the sect, 20 ;
source of their supreme power,
21.
s
273
274
THE RELIGIONS AND
Buddha, his parentage, 57 ; birth
of, 58 ; characteristics of his
childhood, 60 ; anecdotes of
his youth, 61 ,- flies from the
palace, 62; tempted by Mara,
62 ; Brahmanical training,
63; his great ^temptation, 64;
training of disciples, 68 ; visit
to his father, 69 ; religious pro-
paganda, 70 ; his death, 72 ;
learning, 72 ; salient character-
istics, 74 5 relics of, 80.
Buddhism, 54 5 metaphysics of,
77 ; its conception of the
cosmos, 78 ; its rejection of
the caste system, 82 ; spread
of the faith, 75 ; compared
with Christianity, 83 ; Nietz-
sche's explanation of, 84 ;
changes in the doctrines of, 86 ;
not derived from supernatural
sources, 93 ; Buddhistic writ-
ings, the, 93; in Europe and
Asia, 76 ; materialism of, 77 ;
the four great truths of, 78 ;
welcomed in China and Japan,
93 ; sets virtue above wisdom,
94 ; its pessimism, 94 ; posi-
tion of women under, 94 ; anti-
sexualism, 97.
Burnouf, E., quoted, 30.
Bushido, 231.
CALIFS, 140.
Cammurabi, consolidation of Baby-
lonia by, 240.
Caste system, development of, 19 ;
Chandal caste, 52, note.
Castes, the four divisions of, 195
mixture of, 23.
Chaldea, 235, 236.
Chandal, caste, the, 52, note.
China, early history of, 21 1 j lack
of god-idea in, 27 ; character-
istics of the people, 214; lack
of poetry in, 225.
Christianity, invented for the bene-
fit of the weak, 255 ; Nietzsche's
view of, 85 ; its spread among
the lower classes, 185 its
origin, 257.
Confucius, birth of, 211 ; his
marriage and early youth, 212 ;
meets Lao-Tze, 212 ; appointed
Governor of Chung-tu ,212; sets
out on his travels, 213 ; his
numerous disciples, 213 ; his re-
turn to Lu, 213 ; his death,
213 ; quoted, 215, 216, 217,
218 ; lack of arrangement in
his writings, 217; influence on
modern China, 218.
DAV-KINA, 237.
Democracy and its dangers, 18,
3*-
EA, 236.
Egypt, emigration of Jews into,
185; early culture of, 186 ;
polytheism in, 186.
Empedocles, 260.
England, Church of, aristocratic
nature of, 18.
English thinkers, their influence
on European government, 253.
Eridu, 236.
Eri-dugga, 236.
Euripides, quoted, 40.
GAUTAMA, see Buddha.
Gods, worship of, 28 ; early
Indian, 29.
Government, forms of, preferred
by the Hindoo, 254,
Greeks, the, the exuberance and
tragic drama of, 255; culture
of, compared with the Egyptian
culture, 262.
HANIFS, their influence on
Mohammedanism, 102-3.
Hari-Kari, 232.
Herodotus, his researches con-
firmed, 235.
PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST 275
Hindoos (see also India), their
military ardour, 255.
Hittites, 248.
INDIA, English administration of,
252 : individuality of the people
of, 255 ; invasion of, by Aryans,
II ; early law codes, 21 ; early
inhabitants of, 27.
Individualism, Eastern, 255.
Intolerance, Christian, examples
of, 266.
Islam, see Mohammedanism.
Istar, 237.
JAPAN, Europeanisation of, 252;
influence of the Samurai on,
233 j earliest documents of,
227 ; dominant tribes in, 227 ;
Shintoism in, 228 ; Buddhism
in, 229.
Jerusalem captured by Solomon,
200 ; by the Babylonians, 200 ;
by the Egyptians, 201 ; by the
Romans, 202.
Jews, the, emigration into Egypt,
185 ; the progress of, under
Egyptian civilisation, 1 86 ; their
slavery and harsh treatment,
187 ; deliverance by Moses,
192; early characteristics, 192;
their long struggle for existence,
196; their aristocratic morality,
197 ; their influence, 198 ; in
the "Promised Land," 199;
Mosaic law, 195 ; and its neg-
lect after death of Joshua, 199 ;
the kings, 200 ; Babylonian
Captivity, 201 ; influence of
Alexandrian culture upon, 202 ;
and Hellenism, 202, 257.
Joshua, 199.
KORAN, the, influence of, 142 ;
most widely-read book, 142;
how composed, 144 j Jewish in-
fluence on, 146 ; meaning of the
word, 147 ; arrangement of,
147 ; themes dealt with in, 1 52 ;
legal decisions in, 152; com-
parison with the Old Testament,
156; chronological divisions of,
158; first editing of, 16 1 ; com-
mentaries on, 163.
Krishna, 43/o//.
LAO-TZK, birth of, 220 ; his philo-
sophy, aristocratic nature of,
221.
Leprosy, frequent outbreaks of,
among the Jews, 191.
Locke, and the French Revolu-
tion, 252.
MAIMONIDES, influence of, 258.
Mantras, the, see Vedas.
Manu, Laws of, 21, 22.
Maret, Henri, quoted, 253.
Mencius, 223.
Merodach, 237.
Messiah, the, 262.
Mithras 250.
Mohammed, his physical charac-
teristics, 1 02 ; birth of, 101 ;
travels in Palestine, 101 ; mar-
ries Khadija, 101 ; early interest
in religion, 102 ; his epilepsy,
102 ; revelations to, on Mount
Hira, 103 ; his first converts,
106 ; his religious mission,
107 ; quarrels with the Mec-
cans, 109 ; visits to the Taif,
113; his second wife, 113;
negotiations with the men of
Medina, 114; flight to Medina,
116 ; supreme magistrate of
Medina, 119; quarrels with the
Jews at Medina, 123 ; attacks
the Meccan caravans, 127;
makes war on the Koraish,
128 ; attacks the Jews in Me-
dina, 130; conquers Mecca,
135; expedition against the
Greeks, 137; pilgrimage to
Mecca, 138 ; final address, 139;
his last illness and death, 140.
276 RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES
Mohammedanism, invented for the
benefit of the strong, 255 ; its
ethics, 155 ; the five precepts of,
124; fatalism, 164; progress of,
after the Prophet's death, 140.
Morality of the Old Testament,
143-
Moses, his high descent, 188;
early studies, 189 ; kills an un-
just Egyptian, 189; his pro-
phetic insight, 190; joined by
Aaron, 190 ; receives the Ten j
Commandments, 195.
Mythology, connection between
Greek and Aryan, 13-15.
NABONIDUS, last native Babylonian
king, 242.
Nietzsche, his views of religion,
7 ; aphorism on religious ecstasy,
148 ; study of, in England, ix.
Nirvana, see Buddhism.
Nitobe, quoted, 233.
OM, sacred syllable, 41.
Oriental, the, and Christianity,
254.
PARIAHS, the, 53 note.
Persians, in Arabia, 98.
Polytheism, in India, 30; in
Egypt, 186; in Arabia, 99.
Purgatory, compared with Brah-
manical tenets, 57.
Pythagoras, 259, 261.
RACES, necessity for the purity of,
245-6.
Religion, its theory and practice,
86-87 ; meaning, 8.
Rig- Veda, tee Vedas.
Rousseau and the French Revolu-
tion, 252.
SAMURAI, the, see Japan.
Sargon 1., see Babylon.
Sargon II. , see Hittites.
Scythians, the, 261.
Semites, emigration into Meso-
potamia, 234.
Sera, Dr, quoted, 20-21.
Serf, the, in modern times, 17, 32.
Serpent, the, mentioned in Baby-
lonian hymns, 237.
Shiites, 141.
Shinar, see Babylon.
Shintoism, its meaning and
features, 228.
Siddhartha, see Buddha.
Sin, 239.
Sinai, 193.
Siva, 41.
Socialism, early initance of, 92.
Soma, 34.
Sunnites, 141.
Sura, see the Koran.
TAMMUZ, 237.
Taoism, see Lao-Tze.
Thales, 259.
Toleration, its origin, 203.
UPANISHADS, see Vedas.
Ur, 238.
VEDAS, the, their origin and de-
velopment, 2$ foil.
Vedism, the primitive Aryan
worship, 30 ; development into
Brahmanism, 31.
Voltaire and the French Revolu-
tion, 252.
WORDSWORTH, quoted 267.
ZOROASTIR, his teaching, 246-7.
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