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 THE SYMPATHY OF RELIGIONS. 

 AN ADDRESS, DELIVERED AT HORTICULTURAL HALL, BOSTON, February 6, 1870. 

 BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 

 BOSTON: _REPRINTED FROM THE RADICAL. _ OFFICE, 25 BROMFIELD STREET. 1871. 

THE SYMPATHY OF RELIGIONS. 

BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 

Our true religious life begins when we discover that there is an InnerLight, not infallible but invaluable, which "lighteth every man thatcometh into the world. " Then we have something to steer by; and it ischiefly this, and not an anchor, that we need. The human soul, likeany other noble vessel, was not built to be anchored, but to sail. Ananchorage may, indeed, be at times a temporary need, in order to makesome special repairs, or to take fresh cargo in; yet the naturaldestiny of both ship and soul is not the harbor, but the ocean; to cutwith even keel the vast and beautiful expanse; to pass from island onto island of more than Indian balm, or to continents fairer thanColumbus won; or, best of all, steering close to the wind, to extractmotive power from the greatest obstacles. Men must forget the eternitythrough which they have yet to sail, when they talk of anchoring hereupon this bank and shoal of time. It would be a tragedy to see theshipping of the world whitening the seas no more, and idly riding atanchor in Atlantic ports; but it would be more tragic to see a worldof souls fascinated into a fatal repose and renouncing their destinyof motion. 

And as with individuals, so with communities. The great historicreligions of the world are not so many stranded hulks left to perish. The best of them are all in motion. All over the world the divineinfluence moves men. There is a sympathy in religions, and thissympathy is shown alike in their origin, their records, and theirprogress. Men are ceasing to disbelieve, and learning to believe more. I have worshiped in an Evangelical church when thousands rose to theirfeet at the motion of one hand. I have worshiped in a Roman Catholicchurch when the lifting of one finger broke the motionless multitudeinto twinkling motion, till the magic sign was made, and all was stillonce more. But I never for an instant have supposed that thisconcentrated moment of devotion was more holy or more beautiful thanwhen one cry from a minaret hushes a Mohammedan city to prayer, orwhen, at sunset, the low invocation, "Oh! the gem in the lotus--oh!the gem in the lotus, " goes murmuring, like the cooing of many doves, across the vast surface of Thibet. True, "the gem in the lotus" meansnothing to us, but it means as much to the angels as "the Lamb ofGod, " for it is a symbol of aspiration. 

Every year brings new knowledge of the religions of the world, andevery step in knowledge brings out the sympathy between them. They allshow the same aim, the same symbols, the same forms, the sameweaknesses, the same aspirations. Looking at these points of unity, wemight say there is but one religion under many forms, whose essentialcreed is the Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man, --disguisedby corruptions, symbolized by mythologies, ennobled by virtues, degraded by vices, but still the same. Or if, passing to a closeranalysis, we observe the shades of difference, we shall find in thesevarying faiths the several instruments which perform what Cudworthcalls "the Symphony of Religions. " And though some may stir likedrums, and others soothe like flutes, and others like violins commandthe whole range of softness and of strength, yet they are all alikeinstruments, and nothing in any one of them is so wondrous as thegreat laws of sound which equally control them all. 

"Amid so much war and contest and variety of opinion, " said MaximusTyrius, "you will find one consenting conviction in every land, thatthere is one God, the King and Father of all. " "God being one, " saidAristotle, "only receives various names from the variousmanifestations we perceive. " "Sovereign God, " said Cleanthes, in thatsublime prayer which Paul quoted, "whom men invoke under many names, and who rulest alone, ... It is to thee that all nations shouldaddress themselves, for we all are thy children. " So Origen, theChristian Father, frankly says that no man can be blamed for callingGod's name in Egyptian, nor in Scythian, nor in such other language ashe best knows. [A]

To say that different races worship different Gods, is like sayingthat they are warmed by different suns. The names differ, but the sunis the same, and so is God. As there is but one source of light andwarmth, so there is but one source of religion. To this all nationstestify alike. We have yet but a part of our Holy Bible. The time willcome when, as in the middle ages, all pious books will be calledsacred scriptures, _Scripturæ Sacræ_. From the most remote portions ofthe earth, from the Vedas and the Sagas, from Plato and Zoroaster, Confucius and Mohammed, from the Emperor Marcus Antoninus and theslave Epictetus, from the learned Alexandrians and the ignorant Gallanegroes, there will be gathered hymns and prayers and maxims in whichevery religious soul may unite, --the magnificent liturgy of the humanrace. 

The greatest of modern scholars, Von Humboldt, asserted in middle lifeand repeated the assertion in old age, that "all positive religionscontain three distinct parts. First, a code of morals, very fine, andnearly the same in all. Second, a geological dream, and, third, a mythor historical novelette, which last becomes the most important ofall. " And though this observation may be somewhat roughly stated, itsessential truth is seen when we compare the different religions of theworld side by side. With such startling points of similarity, where isthe difference? The main difference lies here, that each fills someblank space in its creed with the name of a different teacher. Forinstance, the Oriental Parsee wears a fine white garment, bound aroundhim with a certain knot; and whenever this knot is undone, at morningor night, he repeats the four main points of his creed, which are asfollows:--

"To believe in one God, and hope for mercy from him only. "

"To believe in a future state of existence. "

"To do as you would be done by. "

Thus far the Parsee keeps on the universal ground of religion. Then hedrops into the language of his sect and adds, --

"To believe in Zoroaster as lawgiver, and to hold his writingssacred. "

The creed thus furnishes a formula for all religions. It might beprinted in blank like a circular, leaving only the closing name to befilled in. [B] For Zoroaster read Christ, and you have Christianity;read Buddha, and you have Buddhism; read Mohammed, and you haveMohammedanism. Each of these, in short, is Natural Religion _plus_ anindividual name. It is by insisting on that _plus_ that each religionstops short of being universal. 

In this religion of the human race, thus variously disguised, we findeverywhere the same leading features. The same great doctrines, goodor bad, --regeneration, predestination, atonement, the future life, thefinal judgment, the Divine Reason or Logos, and the Trinity. The samereligious institutions, --monks, missionaries, priests, and pilgrims. The same ritual, --prayers, liturgies, sacrifices, sermons, hymns. Thesame implements, --frankincense, candles, holy water, relics, amulets, votive offerings. The same symbols, --the cross, the ball, thetriangle, the serpent, the all-seeing eye, the halo of rays, the treeof life. The same saints, angels, and martyrs. The same holinessattached to particular cities, rivers, and mountains. The sameprophecies and miracles, --the dead restored and evil spirits cast out. The self-same holy days; for Easter and Christmas were kept as springand autumn festivals, centuries before our era, by Egyptians, Persians, Saxons, Romans. The same artistic designs, since the motherand child stand depicted, not only in the temples of Europe, but inthose of Etruria and Arabia, Egypt and Thibet. In ancient Christianart, the evangelists were represented with the same heads of eagles, oxen, and lions, upon which we gaze with amazement in Egyptian tombs. Nay, the very sects and subdivisions of all historic religions havebeen the same, and each supplies us with mystic and rationalist, formalist and philanthropist, ascetic and epicurean. The simple factis, that all these things are as indigenous as grass and mosses; theyspring up in every soil, and only the microscope can tell them apart. 

And, as all these inevitably recur, so comes back again and again theidea of incarnation, --the Divine Man. Here, too, all religionssympathize, and, with slight modifications, each is the copy of theother. As in the dim robing-rooms of foreign churches are kept richstores of sacred vestments, ready to be thrown over every successivegeneration of priests, so the world has kept in memory the samestately traditions to decorate each new Messiah. He is predicted byprophecy, hailed by sages, born of a virgin, attended by miracle, borne to heaven without tasting death, and with promise of return. Zoroaster and Confucius have no human father. Osiris is the Son ofGod, he is called the Revealer of Life and Light; he first teaches onechosen race; he then goes with his apostles to teach the Gentiles, conquering the world by peace; he is slain by evil powers; after deathhe descends into hell, then rises again, and presides at the lastjudgment of all mankind: those who call upon his name shall be saved. Buddha is born of a virgin; his name means the Word, the Logos, but heis known more tenderly as the Saviour of Man; he embarrasses histeachers, when a child, by his understanding and his answers; he istempted in the wilderness, when older; he goes with his apostles toredeem the world; he abolishes caste and cruelty, and teachesforgiveness; he receives among his followers outcasts whom Pharisaicpride despises, and he only says, "My law is a law of mercy to all. "Slain by enemies, he descends into hell, rising without tasting death, and still lives to make intercession for man. 

These are the recognized properties of religious tradition; thebeautiful garments belong not to the individual, but the race. It isthe drawback on all human greatness that it makes itself deified. Evenof Jesus it was said sincerely by the Platonic philosopher Porphyry, "That noble soul, who has ascended into heaven, has by a certainfatality become an occasion of error. " The inequality of gifts is aproblem not yet solved, and there is always a craving for some miracleto explain it. Men set up their sublime representatives as so manyspiritual athletes, and measure them. "See, this one is six inchestaller; those six inches prove him divine. " But because men surpassus, or surpass everybody, shall we hold them separate from the race?Construct the race as you will, somebody must stand at the head, invirtue as in intellect. Shall we deify Shakespeare? Because we maybegin upon his treasury of wisdom almost before we enjoy any otherbook, and can hold to it longer, and read it all our lives, from thoseearnest moments when we demand the very core of thought, down tomoments of sickness and sadness when nothing else captivates; becausewe may go the rounds of all literature, and grow surfeited with everyother great author, and learn a dozen languages and a score ofphilosophical systems, and travel the wide world over, and come backto Shakespeare at length, fresh as ever, and begin at the beginning ofhis infinite meanings once more, --are we therefore to consider him asseparated from mortality? Are we to raise him to the heavens, as inthe magnificent eulogium of Keats, who heads creation with "thingsreal, as sun, stars, and passages of Shakespeare"? Or are we to erectinto a creed the bold words I once heard an enthusiast soberly say, "that it is impossible to think of Shakespeare as a man"? Or shall wereverently own, that, as man's humility first bids him separatehimself from these his great superiors, so his faith and hope bringhim back to them and renew the tie. It paralyzes my intellect if Idoubt whether Shakespeare was a man; it paralyzes my whole spiritualnature if I doubt whether Jesus was. 

Therefore I believe that all religion is natural, all revealed. Whatfaith in humanity springs up, what trust in God, when one recognizesthe sympathy of religions! Every race believes in a Creator andGovernor of the world, in whom devout souls recognize a Father also. Every race believes in immortality. Every race recognizes in itsreligious precepts the brotherhood of man. The whole gigantic systemof caste in Hindostan has grown up in defiance of the Vedas, which arenow being invoked to abolish them. The Heetopades of Vishnu Sarmanforbid caste. "Is this one of our tribe or a stranger? is thecalculation of the narrow-minded; but, to those of a nobledisposition, the earth itself is but one family. " "What is religion?"says elsewhere the same book, and answers, "Tenderness toward allcreatures. " "He is my beloved of whom mankind are not afraid and whoof mankind is not afraid, " says the Bhagvat Geeta. "Kesava is pleasedwith him who does good to others, ... Who is always desirous of thewelfare of all creatures, " says the Vishnu Purana. In Confucius it iswritten, "My doctrine is simple and easy to understand;" and his chiefdisciple adds, "It consists only in having the heart right and inloving one's neighbor as one's self. " When he was asked, "Is there oneword which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?" heanswered, "Is not 'Reciprocity' such a word? What you wish done toyourself, do to others. " By some translators the rule is given in anegative form, in which it is also found in the Jewish Talmud (RabbiHillel), "Do not to another what thou wouldst not he should do tothee; this is the sum of the law. " So Thales, when asked for a rule oflife, taught, "That which thou blamest in another, do not thyself. ""Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, " said the Hebrew book ofLeviticus. Iamblichus tells us that Pythagoras taught "the love of allto all. " "To live is not to live for one's self alone, let us help oneanother, " said the Greek dramatist Menander; and the Roman dramatistTerence, following him, brought down the applause of the whole theatreby the saying, "I am a man; I count nothing human foreign to me. ""Give bread to a stranger, " said Quintilian, "in the name of theuniversal brotherhood which binds together all men under the commonfather of nature. " "What good man will look on any suffering asforeign to himself?" said the Latin satirist Juvenal. "This sympathyis what distinguishes us from brutes, " he adds. The poet Lucanpredicted a time when warlike weapons should be laid aside, and allmen love one another. "Nature has inclined us to love men, " saidCicero, "and this is the foundation of the law. " He also describedhis favorite virtue of justice as "devoting itself wholly to the goodof others. " Seneca said, "We are members of one great body, Natureplanted in us a mutual love, and fitted us for a social life. We mustconsider that we were born for the good of the whole. " "Love mankind, "wrote Marcus Antoninus, summing it all up in two words; while theloving soul of Epictetus extended the sphere of mutual affectionbeyond this earth, holding that "the universe is but one great city, full of beloved ones, divine and human, by nature endeared to eachother. "[C]

This sympathy of religions extends even to the loftiest virtues, --theforgiveness of injuries, the love of enemies and the overcoming ofevil with good. "The wise man, " said the Chinese Lao-tse, "avenges hisinjuries with benefits. " "Hatred, " says a Buddhist sacred book, theDhammapada, "does not cease by hatred at any time; hatred ceases bylove; this is the eternal rule. " "To overcome evil with good is good, and to resist evil by evil is evil, " says a Mohammedan manual ofethics. "Turn not away from a sinner, but look on him withcompassion, " says Saadi's Gulistan. "If thine enemy hunger, give himbread to eat; if he thirst, give him water to drink, " said the Hebrewproverb. "He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than hewho suffers it, " said Plato, and adds, "It is never right to return aninjury. " "No one will dare maintain, " said Aristotle, "that it isbetter to do injustice than to bear it. " "We should do good to ourenemy, " said Cleobulus, "and make him our friend. " "Speak not evil toa friend, nor even to an enemy, " said Pittacus, one of the Seven WiseMen. "It is more beautiful, " said Valerius Maximus, "to overcomeinjury by the power of kindness than to oppose to it the obstinacy ofhatred. " Maximus Tyrius has a special chapter on the treatment ofinjuries, and concludes: "If he who injures does wrong, he who returnsthe injury does equally wrong. " Plutarch, in his essay, "How to profitby our enemies, " bids us sympathize with them in affliction and aidtheir needs. "A philosopher, when smitten, must love those who smitehim, as if he were the father, the brother, of all men, " saidEpictetus. "It is peculiar to man, " said Marcus Antoninus, "to loveeven those who do wrong.... Ask thyself daily to how many ill-mindedpersons thou hast shown a kind disposition. " He compares the wise andhumane soul to a spring of pure water which blesses even him whocurses it; and the Oriental story likens such a soul to thesandal-wood tree, which imparts its fragrance even to the axe thatcuts it down. [D]

How it cheers and enlarges us to hear of these great thoughts andknow that the Divine has never been without a witness on earth! How itmust sadden the soul to disbelieve them. Worse yet to be in a positionwhere one has to hope that they may not be correctly reported, --thatone by one they may be explained away. A prosecuting attorney oncetold me that the most painful part of his position was that he had tohope that every man he prosecuted would be proved a villain. What isthe painful circumstance in Mrs. Stowe's Byron controversy? That sheis obliged to hope that the character of a sister woman, hithertostainless, may be hopelessly blackened. But what is this to theirposition who are bound to hope that the character of humanity will beblackened by wholesale, who are compelled to resist every atom oflight that history reveals. For instance, as the great character ofBuddha has come out from the darkness, within fifty years, how thesereluctant people have struggled against it, still desiring to escape. "Save us, O God!" they have seemed to say, "from the distress ofbelieving that so many years ago there was a sublime human life. " Showsuch persons that the great religious ideas and maxims are as old asliterature; and how they resist the knowledge! "Surely it is not sobad as that, " they say. "Is there not a possibility of amistranslation? Let us see the text, explore the lexicon; is there nolabor, no toil, by which we can convince ourselves that there is amistake? Anything rather than believe that there is a light whichlighteth every man that cometh into the world. "

For this purpose the very facts of history must be suppressed orexplained away. Sir George Mackenzie, in his "Travels in Iceland, "says that the clergy prevented till 1630, with "mistaken zeal, " thepublication of the Scandinavian Eddas. Huc, the Roman CatholicMissionary, described in such truthful colors the religious influenceof Buddhism in Thibet that his book was put in the _indexexpurgatorius_ at Rome. Balmes, a learned Roman Catholic writer, declares that "Christianity is stripped of a portion of its honors" ifwe trace back any high standard of female purity to the ancientGermans; and so he coolly sets aside as "poetical" the plainstatements of the accurate Tacitus. If we are to believe the accountsgiven of the Jewish Essenes by Josephus, De Quincey thinks, the claimsmade by Christianity are annihilated. "If Essenism could make good itspretensions, there, at one blow, would be an end of Christianity, which, in that case, is not only superseded as an idle repetition of areligious system already published, but as a criminal plagiarism. Norcan the wit of man evade the conclusion. " He accordingly attempts toexplain away the testimony of Josephus. [E]

And what makes this exclusiveness the more repulsive is itsmodernness. Paul himself quoted from the sublime hymn of Cleanthes toprove to the Greeks that they too recognized the Fatherhood of God. The early Christian apologists, living face to face with the elderreligions, made no exclusive claims. Tertullian declared the soul tobe an older authority than prophecy, and its voice the gift of Godfrom the beginning. Justin Martyr said, "Those who live according toReason are Christians, though you may call them atheists.... Suchamong the Greeks were Socrates and Heraclitus and the rest. They whohave made or do make Reason (Logos) their rule of life are Christiansand men without fear and trembling. " "The same God, " said Clement, "towhom we owe the Old and New Testaments gave also to the Greeks theirGreek philosophy by which the Almighty is glorified among the Greeks. "Lactantius declared that the ancient philosophers "attained the fulltruth and the whole mystery of religion. " "One would suppose, " saidMinucius Felix, "either that the Christians were philosophers, or thephilosophers Christians. " "What is now called the Christian religion, "said Augustine, "has existed among the ancients, and was not absentfrom the beginning of the human race, until Christ came in the flesh;from which time the true religion, which existed already, began to becalled Christian. " Jerome said that "the knowledge of God was presentby nature in all, nor was there any one born without God, or who hadnot in himself the seeds of all virtues. "[F]

How few modern sects reach even this point of impartiality! The usualcourse of theologians is to deny, and to deny with fury, that any suchsympathy of religions exists. "There never was a time, " says adistinguished European preacher, "when there did not exist an infinitegulf between the ideas of the ancients and the ideas of Christianity. There is an end of Christianity if men agree in thinking thecontrary. " And an eminent Unitarian preacher in America, Rev. A. P. Peabody, says, "If the truths of Christianity are intuitive andself-evident, how is it that they formed no part of any man'sconsciousness till the advent of Christ?" How can any one look historyin the face, how can any man open even the dictionary of any ancientlanguage, and yet say this? What word sums up the highest Christianvirtue if not _philanthropy_? And yet the word is a Greek word, andwas used in the same sense before Christendom existed. [G]

Fortunately there have always been men whose larger minds could adaptthemselves to the truth instead of narrowing the truth to them. InWilliam Penn's "No Cross No Crown, " one-half the pages are devoted tothe religious testimony of Christians, and one-half to that of thenon-Christian world. The writings of the most learned of EnglishCatholics, Digby, are a treasure-house of ancient religion, and theconflict between the bigot and the scholar makes him deliciouslyinconsistent. He states a doctrine, illustrates it from the schoolmenor the fathers, proudly claims it as being monopolized by theChristian church, and ends by citing a parallel passage from Plato orÆschylus! "The ancient poets, " he declares, "seem never to haveconceived the idea of a spirit of resignation which would sanctifycalamity;" and accordingly he quotes Aristotle's assertion, that"suffering becomes beautiful when any one bears great calamities withcheerfulness, not through insensibility, but through greatness ofmind. " "There is not a passage in the classics, " he declares, "whichrecognizes the beauty of holiness and Christian mildness;" and in thenext breath he remarks, that Homer's description of Patroclusfurnishes "language which might convey an idea of that mildness ofmanner which belonged to men in Christian ages. " And he closes hiseloquent picture of the faith of the middle ages in immortality byattributing to the monks and friars the dying language of Socrates, that "a man who has spent his life in the study of philosophy ought totake courage in his death, and to be full of hope that he is about topossess the greatest good that can be obtained, which will be in hispossession as soon as he dies;" and much more of that serene andsublime wisdom. Yet all this is done in a manner so absolutely freefrom sophistry, the conflict between the scholar and the churchman isso innocent and transparent, that one forgives it in Digby. In mostwriters on these subjects there is greater bigotry, without thelearning which in his case makes it endurable, because it suppliesthe means for its own correction. [H]

And, if it is thus hard to do historical justice, it is far harder tolook with candor upon contemporary religions. Thus the Jesuit FatherRipa thought that Satan had created the Buddhist religion on purposeto bewilder the Christian church. There we see a creed possessing morevotaries than any in the world, numbering nearly one-third of thehuman race. Its traditions go back to a founder whose record isstainless and sublime. It has the doctrine of the Real Presence, theMadonna and Child, the invocation of the dead, monasteries andpilgrimages, celibacy and tonsure, relics, rosaries, and holy water. Wherever it has spread, it has broken down the barrier of caste. Itteaches that all men are brethren, and makes them prove it by theiracts; it diffuses gentleness and self-sacrificing benevolence. "It hasbecome, " as Neander admits, "to many tribes of people a means oftransition from the wildest barbarism to semi-civilization. " Tennent, living amid the lowest form of it in Ceylon, says that its code ofmorals is "second only to that of Christianity itself, " and enjoins"every conceivable virtue and excellence. " It is coming among us, represented by many of the Chinese, and a San-Francisco merchant, aChristian of the Episcopal Church, told me that, on conversing withtheir educated men, he found in them a religious faith quite asenlightened as his own. Shall we not rejoice in this consolingdiscovery? "Yes, " said the simple-hearted Abbé Huc: so he publishedhis account of Buddhism, and saw it excommunicated. "No!" said FatherRipa, "it is the invention of the devil!"[I]

With a steady wave of progress Mohammedanism is sweeping throughAfrica, where Christianity scarcely advances a step. WhereverMohammedanism reaches, schools and libraries are established, gambling and drunkenness cease, theft and falsehood diminish, polygamyis limited, woman begins to be elevated and has property rightsguaranteed; and, instead of witnessing human sacrifices, you see thecottager reading the Koran at her door, like the Christian cottager inCowper's description. "Its gradual extension, " says an eye-witness, "is gradually but surely modifying the negro.... Within the last halfcentury the humanizing influence of the Koran is acknowledged by allwho are acquainted with the interior tribes. "[J] So in India, Mohammedanism makes converts by thousands (according to Col. Sleeman, than whom there can be no more intelligent authority) whereChristianity makes but a handful; and this, he testifies, because inMohammedanism there is no spirit of caste, while Christians have acaste of their own, and will not put converts on an equality. Do werejoice in this great work of progress? No! one would think we werestill in the time of the crusades by the way we ignore theprovidential value of Mohammedanism. 

The one unpardonable sin is exclusiveness. Any form of religion isendangered when we bring it to the test of facts; for none on earthcan bear that test. There never existed a person, nor a book, nor aninstitution, which did not share the merits and the drawbacks of itsrivals. Granting all that can be established as to the debt of theworld to the very best dispensation, the fact still remains, thatthere is not a single maxim, nor idea, nor application, nor triumph, that any single religion can claim as exclusively its own. Neitherfaith, nor love, nor truth, nor disinterestedness, nor forgiveness, nor patience, nor peace, nor equality, nor education, nor missionaryeffort, nor prayer, nor honesty, nor the sentiment of brotherhood, norreverence for woman, nor the spirit of humility, nor the fact ofmartyrdom, nor any other good thing, is monopolized by any one or anyhalf dozen forms of faith. All religions recognize, more or lessdistinctly, these principles; all do something to exemplify, somethingto dishonor them. Travelers find virtue in a seeming minority in allother countries, and forget that they have left it in a minority athome. A Hindoo girl, astonished at the humanity of a British officertoward her father, declared her surprise that any one could display somuch kindness who did not believe in the god Vishnu. Gladwin, in his"Persian Classics, " narrates a scene which occurred in his presencebetween a Jew and a Mohammedan. The Mohammedan said in wrath, "If thisdeed of conveyance is not authentic, may God cause me to die a Jew. "The Jew said, "I make my oath on the Pentateuch, and if I swearfalsely I am a Mohammedan like you. "

What religion stands highest in moral results if not Christianity? Yetthe slave-trader belongs to Christendom as well as the saint. If wesay that Christendom was not truly represented by the slaves in thehold of John Newton's slave-ship, but only by the prayers which heread every day, as he narrates, in the cabin, --then we must admit thatBuddhism is not to be judged merely by the prostrations before Fo, butby the learning of its lamaseries and the beneficence of its people. The reformed Brahmoes of India complain that Christian nations forcealcoholic drinks on their nation, despite their efforts; and thegreater humanity of Hindoos towards animals has been, according to Dr. Hedge, a serious embarrassment to our missionaries. So men interruptthe missionaries in China, according to Coffin's late book, by askingthem why, if their doctrines be true, Christian nations forced opiumon an unwilling emperor, who refused to the last to receive money fromthe traffic? What a history has been our treatment of the AmericanIndians? "Instead of virtues, " said Cadwallader Colden, writing asearly as 1727, "we have taught them vices that they were entirely freefrom before that time. " The delegation from the Society of Friendsreported last year that an Indian chief brought a young Indian beforea white commissioner to give evidence, and the commissioner hesitateda little in receiving a part of the testimony, when the chief saidwith great emphasis, "Oh! you may believe what he says: he tells thetruth: _he has never seen a white man before_!" In Southey's Wesleythere is an account of an Indian whom Wesley met in Georgia, and whothus summed up his objections to Christianity: "Christian much drunk!Christian beat man! Christian tell lies! Devil Christian! Me noChristian!"[K] What then? All other religions show the same disparitybetween belief and practice, and each is safe till it tries to excludethe rest. Test each sect by its best or its worst as you will, by itshigh-water mark of virtue or its low-water mark of vice. But falsehoodbegins when you measure the ebb of any other religion against theflood-tide of your own. 

There is a noble and a base side to every history. The same religionvaries in different soils. Christianity is not the same in England andin Italy; in Armenia and in Ethiopia; in the Protestant and Catholiccantons of Switzerland; in Massachusetts, in Georgia, and in Utah. Neither is Buddhism the same in China, in Thibet and in Ceylon; norMohammedanism in Turkey and in Persia. We have no right to pluck thebest fruit from one tree, the worst from another, and then say thatthe tree is known by its fruits. I say again, Christianity has, on thewhole, produced the highest results of all, in manners, in arts, inenergy. Yet when Christianity had been five centuries in the world, the world's only hope seemed to be in the superior strength and purityof pagan races. "Can we wonder, " wrote Salvian (A. D. 400), "if ourlands have been given over to the barbarians by God? since that whichwe have polluted by our profligacy the barbarians have cleansed bytheir chastity. "[L] At the end of its first thousand years, Christianity could only show Europe at its lowest ebb of civilization, in a state which Guizot calls "death by the extinction of everyfaculty. " The barbarians had only deteriorated since their conversion;the great empires were falling to pieces; and the only bright spot inEurope was Mohammedan Spain, whose universities taught all Christendomscience, as its knights taught chivalry. Even at the end of fifteenhundred years, the Turks, having conquered successively Jerusalem andConstantinople, seemed altogether the most powerful nation of theworld; their empire was compared to the Roman empire; they weregaining all the time. You will find everywhere, in Luther's"Table-talk" for instance, how weak Christendom seemed against them inthe middle of the sixteenth century; and Lord Bacon, yet later, describes them in his "Essays" as the only warlike nation in Europe, except the Spaniards. But the art of printing had been discovered, andthat other new world, America; the study of Greek literature wasreviving the intellect of Europe, and the tide had begun to turn. Forfour hundred years it has been safe for Christendom to be boastful, but, if at any time during the fifteen hundred years previous thecomparison had been made, the boasting would have been the other way. It is unsafe to claim a monopoly of merit on the basis of facts thatcover four centuries out of nineteen. Let us not be misled by a hastyvanity, lest some new incursion of barbarians teach us, as it taughtthe early Christians, to be humble. 

We see what Christianity has done for Europe; but we do not rememberhow much Europe has done for Christianity. Take away the influence ofrace and climate; take away Greek literature and Mohammedan chivalryand the art of printing; set the decline of Christianity in Asia andAfrica against its gain in Europe and America, --and whateversuperiority may be left is not enough on which to base exclusiveclaims. [M] The recent scientific advances of the age are a brillianttheme for the rhetorician; but those who make these advances are thelast men to ascribe them to the influence of any exclusive religion. 

Indeed it is only very lately that the claim of superiority incivilization and the arts of life has been made in behalf ofChristianity. Down to the time of the Reformation it was usual tocontrast the intellectual and practical superiority of the heathenwith the purely spiritual claims of the church. "The church has alwaysbeen accustomed, " says the Roman Catholic Digby, "to see genius andlearning in the ranks opposed to her. " "From the beginning of theworld, " said Luther, "there have always been among the heathens higherand rarer people, of greater and more exalted understanding, moreexcellent diligence and skill in all arts, than among Christians, orthe people of God. " "Do we excel in intellect, in learning, in decencyof morals?" said Melancthon. "By no means. But we excel in the trueknowledge and worship and adoration of God. "[N]

Historically, of course, we are Christians, and can enjoy theadvantage which that better training has given, just as the favoredson of a king may enjoy his special advantages and yet admit that theless favored are equally sons. The name of Christianity only ceases toexcite respect when it is used to represent any false or exclusiveclaims, or when it takes the place of the older and grander words, "Religion" and "Virtue. " When we fully comprehend the sympathy ofreligions we shall deal with other faiths on equal terms. We shallcease trying to free men from one superstition by inviting them intoanother. The true missionaries are the men inside each religion whohave outgrown its limitations. But no Christian missionary has everyet consented to meet the men of other religions upon the commonground of Theism. In Bishop Heber's time, the Hindoo reformer SwaameeNarain was teaching purity and peace, the unity of God, and theabolition of castes. Many thousands of men followed his teachings, andwhole villages and districts were raised from the worst immorality byhis labors, as the Bishop himself bears witness. But the good Bishopseems to have despaired of him as soon as Swaamee Narain refusedconversion to Christianity, making the objection that God was notincarnated in one man, but in many. Then came Ram Mohun Roy, fortyyears ago, and argued from the Vedas against idolatry, caste, and theburning of widows. He also refused to be called a Christian, and themissionaries denounced him. Now comes Keshub Chunder Sen, with hisgenerous utterances: "We profess the universal and absolute religion, whose cardinal doctrines are the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhoodof Man, and which accepts the truths of all scriptures, and honors theprophets of all nations. " The movement reaches thousands whom noforeign influence could touch; yet the Methodist missionaries denounceit in the name of Christ, and even the little Unitarian mission opensagainst it a battery of a single gun. It is the same with ourtreatment of the Jews. According to Bayard Taylor, Christendomconverts annually three or four Jews in Jerusalem, at a cost of$20, 000 each. Nothing has been more criticised in the course of theFree Religious Association than its admission of Jews as equals on itsplatform; and yet the reformed Jews in America have already gone inadvance of the most liberal Christian sects in their width ofreligious sympathy. "The happiness of man, " says Rabbi Wise, inspeaking for them, "depends on no creed and no book; it depends on thedominion of truth, which is the Redeemer and Savior, the Messiah andthe King of Glory. "[O]

It is our happiness to live in a time when all religions are at lastoutgrowing their mythologies, and emancipated men are stretching outtheir hands to share together "the luxury of a religion that does notdegrade. " The progressive Brahmoes of India, the Jewish leaders inAmerica, the Free Religious Association among ourselves, are teachingessentially the same principles, seeking the same ends. The Jewishcongregations in Baltimore were the first to contribute for theeducation of the freedmen; the Buddhist Temple, in San Francisco, wasthe first edifice of that city draped in mourning after the murder ofPresident Lincoln; the Parsees of the East sent contributions to theSanitary Commission. The great religions of the world are but largersects; they come together, like the lesser sects, for works ofbenevolence; they share the same aspirations, and every step in theprogress of each brings it nearer to all the rest. For us, the doorout of superstition and sin may be called Christianity; that is anhistorical name only, the accident of a birthplace. But other nationsfind other outlets; they must pass through their own doors, notthrough ours; and all will come at last upon the broad ground of God'sproviding, which bears no man's name. The reign of heaven on earthwill not be called the Kingdom of Christ nor of Buddha, --it will becalled the Church of God, or the Commonwealth of Man. I do not wish tobelong to a religion only, but to _the_ religion; it must not includeless than the piety of the world. 

If one insists on being exclusive, where shall he find a home? Whathold has any Protestant sect among us on a thoughtful mind? They aretoo little, too new, too inconsistent, too feeble. What are thesechildren of a day compared with that magnificent Church of Rome, whichcounts its years by centuries, and its votaries by millions, and itsmartyrs by myriads; with kings for confessors and nations forconverts; carrying to all the earth one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and claiming for itself no less title than the Catholic, theUniversal? Yet in conversing with Catholics one is again repelled bythe extreme juvenility, and modernness, and scanty numbers of theirchurch. It is the superb elder brother of our little sects, doubtless, and seems to have most of the family fortune. But the whole fortuneis so small! and even the elder brother is so young! Even theRomanist ignores traditions more vast, antiquity more remote, aliterature of piety more grand. His temple suffocates: give us ashrine still vaster; something than this Catholicism more catholic;not the Church of Rome, but of God and Man; a Pantheon, not aParthenon; the true _semper, ubique, et ab omnibus_, the Religion ofthe Ages, Natural Religion. 

I was once in a foreign cathedral when, after the three days ofmourning, in Holy Week, came the final day of Hallelujah. The greatchurch had looked dim and sad, with the innumerable windows closelycurtained, since the moment when the symbolical bier of Jesus wasborne to its symbolical tomb beneath the High Altar, while the threemystic candles blazed above it. There had been agony and beating ofcheeks in the darkness, while ghostly processions moved through theaisles, and fearful transparencies were unrolled from the pulpit. Thepriests kneeled in gorgeous robes, chanting, with their heads restingon the altar steps; the multitude hung expectant on their words. Suddenly burst forth a new chant, "Gloria in Excelsis!" In thatinstant every curtain was rolled aside, the cathedral was bathed inglory, the organs clashed, the bells chimed, flowers were thrown fromthe galleries, little birds were let loose, friends embraced andgreeted one another, and we looked down upon a tumultuous sea offaces, all floating in a sunlit haze. And yet, I thought, the whole ofthis sublime transformation consisted in letting in the light of day!These priests and attendants, each stationed at his post, had onlyremoved the darkness they themselves had made. Unveil these darkenedwindows, but remove also these darkening walls; the temple itself isbut a lingering shadow of that gloom. Instead of its coarse andstifling incense, give us God's pure air, and teach us that thebroadest religion is the best. 

FOOTNOTES:

[A] This is Cudworth's interpretation, but he has rather strained thepassage, which must be that beginning, Οὐδὲν οὖν οἶμαι διαφέρειν (Adv. Celsum, v. ). The passages from Aristotle and Cleanthes are in Stobæus. Compare Maximus Tyrius, Diss. I. : Θεὸς εἷς πάντων βασιλεὺς καὶ πατὴρ. 

[B] Compare Augustine, De Vera Relig. , c. Iv. : "Paucis mutatis verbisatque sententiis Christiani fierent. " The Parsee creed is given asabove in a valuable article in Martin's Colonial Magazine, No. 18. 

[C] See Vishnu Sarman (tr. By Johnson), pp. 16, 28. Bhagvat Geeta (tr. By Wilkins), ch. 12. Vishnu Purana (tr. By Wilson), p. 291. Confucius, Lun-yu (tr. By Pauthier), ch. Iv. § 16. Also Davis' Chinese, ii. 50. [Legge's Confucian Analects, xv. 23, gives the negative form. ] Thales, in Diogenes Laertius, B. I. , § 36: Πῶς ἂν ἄριστα καὶ δικαιόταταβιώσαιμεν? ἐὰν ἃ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐπιτιμῶμεν, αὑτοὶ μὴ δρῶμεν. Stobæusreads instead (c. 43), ὅσα νεμεσεῖς τὸν πλησίον, αὑτὸς μὴ ποίει. Leviticus xix. 18. Iamblichus de Pythag. Vita, c. 16 and 33: Φιλίαν δὲδιαφανέστατα πάντων πρὸς ἅπαντας Πυθαγόρας παρέδωκε. Terence, Heaut. I. , 1, 25: "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto. " Quintilian, Declamations, quoted by Denis. Juvenal, Sat. Xv. 140-142:--

 "Quis enim bonus ... Ulla aliena sibi credat mala?"

Lucan, Pharsalia, I. 60, 61:--

 "Tunc genus humanum positis sibi consulat armis Inque vicem gens omnis amet. "

Cicero, de Legibus i. 15: "Nam haec nascuntur ex eo, quia naturapropensi sumus ad diligendos homines, quod fundamentum juris est. "Also de Republica, iii. 7, 7 (fragment): "Quae virtus, praeterceteras, tota se ad alienas porrigit utilitates et explicat. " MarcusAntoninus, vii, 31: Φίλησον τὸν ἀνθρώπινον γένος. Epictetus, B. III. , c. Xxiv. : Ὅτι ὁ κόσμος οὗτος μία πόλις ἐστὶ ... πάντα δὲ φίλων μεστὰ, πρῶτον μὲν Θεῶν, εἶτα καὶ ἀνθρώπων, φύσει πρὸς ἀλλήλοις ᾠκειωμένων. 

[D] Dhammapada (tr. By Max Müller), in Rogers' Buddhagosha's Parables. Akhlak-i-Jalaly (tr. By Thompson), p. 441. Saadi's Gulistan (tr. ByRoss), p. 240; (tr. By Gladwin, Am. Ed. ), p. 209. Proverbs xxv. 21. Plato, Gorgias, § 78: Ἀεὶ τὸν ἀδικοῦντα τοῦ ἀδικουμένου ἀθλιώτερονεἶναι. Crito, § 10: Ὡς οὐδέποτε ὀρθῶς ἔχοντος οὔτε τοῦ ἀδικεῖν οὔτετοῦ ἀνταδικεῖν. Cleobulus in Diog. Laertius, B. I. , § 91: Ἔλεγέ τε τὸνφίλον δεῖν εὐεργετεῖν, ὅπως ᾖ μᾶλλον φίλος. τὸν δὲ ἐχθρὸν, φίλονποιεῖν. Pittacus in Diog. Laertius, B. I. , § 78: Φίλον μὴ λέγεινκακῶς, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ ἐχθρόν. Val. Maximus, iv. 2, 4: "Quia speciosiusaliquanto injuriae beneficiis vincuntur quam mutui odii pertinaciapensantur. " Max. Tyrius, Diss. II. : Καὶ μὲν εἰ ὁ ἀδικῶν κακῶς ποιεῖ, ὁἀντιποιῶν κακῶς οὐδὲν ἧττον ποιεῖ κακῶς, κἂν ἀμύνηται. Plutarch'sMorals (tr. By Goodwin, I. , 293). Epictetus, B. IV. , c. 23: Δαίρεσθαιδεῖ αὐτὸν, ὡς ὄνον, καὶ δαιρόμενον φιλεῖν αὐτοὺς τοὺς δαίροντας, ὡςπατέρα πάντων, ὡς ἀδελφόν. Marcus Antoninus, Medit. V. 31. Vii. 22:Ἴδιον ἄνθρωπον φίλον καὶ τοὺς πταίοντας.... Εἰς ὅσους δὲ ἀγνώμοναςεὐγνώμων ἐγένες. 

[E] Balmes, Protestantism and Catholicity, c. Xxvii. And note. Mackenzie's Iceland, p. 26. De Quincey, Autobiographical Sketches, p. 17, and Essay on the Essenes. The condemnation of Huc's book ismentioned by Max Müller, Chips, &c. , I. , 187. 

[F] "Nec hoc ullis Mosis libris debent. Ante anima quam prophetia. Animæ enim a primordio conscientia Dei dos est. "--_Tertullian_, _adv. Marcion_, 1, 10. 

Οἱ μετὰ Λόγου βιώσαντες χριστιανοί εἰσι, κἂν ἄθεοι ἐνομίσθησαν, οἷονἐν Ἕλλησι μὲν Σωκράτης καὶ Ἡρακλεῖτος καὶ οἱ ὁμοῖοι αὐτοῖς, κ. τ. λ. --_Justin Martyr_, _Apol. _ i. 46. 

Πρὸς δὲ καὶ ὅτι ὁ αὐτὸς θεὸς ἀμφοῖν ταῖν διαθήκαιν χορηγὸς, ὁ καὶ τῆςἙλληνικῆς φιλοσοφίας δοτὴρ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν, δι' ἧς ὁ παντοκράτωρ παρ'Ἕλλησι δοξάζεται, παρέστησεν, δῆλον δὲ κἀνθένδε. --_Clem. Alex. Strom. _, VI. V. 42. 

"Totam igitur veritatem et omne divinæ religionis arcanum philosophiattigerunt. "--_Lactantius_, _Inst. _ viii. 7. 

"Ut quivis arbitretur, aut nunc Christianos philosophos esse, autphilosophos fuisse jam tunc Christianos. "--_Minucius Felix_, _Octavius_, c. Xx. 

"Res ipsa, quæ nunc religio Christiana nuncupatur, erat apud antiquos, nec defuit ab initio generis humani, quousque Christus veniret incarnem, unde vera religio, quæ jam erat, cœpit appellariChristiana. "--_Augustine_, _Retr. _, i. 13. 

"Natura omnibus Dei inesse notitiam, nec quemquam sine Deo nasci, etnon habere in se semina sapientiæ et justitiæ reliquarumquevirtutum. "--_Hieron. _, _Comm. In Gal. _, I. , 1, 15. 

[G] Ἐγὼ δὲ φοβοῦμαι μὴ ὑπὸ φιλανθρωπίας δοκῶ αὐτοῖς ὅ τί περ ἔχωἐκκεχυμένως παντὶ ἀνδρὶ λέγειν. --_Plato_, _Euthyphron_, § 3. 

"Quodque a Græcis φιλανθρωπία dicitur, et significat dexteritatemquandam benevolentiamque erga omnes homines promiscuam. "--_AulusGellius_, B. XIII. , c. Xvi. 1. 

How much more frank and scholarlike are the admissions of Dean Milman:"If we were to glean from the later Jewish writings, from thebeautiful aphorisms of other Oriental nations, which we cannot fairlytrace to Christian sources, and from the Platonic and Stoic philosophytheir more striking precepts, we might find, perhaps, a counterpart toalmost all the moral sayings of Jesus. "--_Hist. Christianity_, B. I. , c. Iv. , § 3. 

[H] Digby's Ages of Faith, II. , 174, 178, 287-289, &c. Digby'sinconsistent method has ample precedent in the early Christianapologists. Tertullian, for instance, glorifies the Christian martyrs, and then, to show that they are not foolish or desperate men, citesthe precedents of Regulus, Zeno, Mutius Scævola, and many others(Apol. C. 50)!

[I] Compare Neander (Am. Tr. ), I. , 450. Huc's Thibet, II. , 50. Tennent's Christianity in Ceylon, pp. 219, 220. 

[J] Capt. Canot, pp. 153, 180, 181. Wilson's Western Africa, 75, 79, 92. Richardson's Great Desert, II. , 63, 129. Johnstone's Abyssinia, I. , 267; Allen's Niger Expedition, I. , 383. Du Chaillu, Ashango Land, xiii. , 129. Barth, _passim_, especially (I. , 310): "That continualstruggle, which always continuing further and further, seems destinedto overpower the nations at the very equator, if Christianity does notpresently step in to dispute the ground with it. " He says "that agreat part of the Berbers of the desert were once Christians, and thatthey afterwards changed their religion and adopted Islam" (I. , 197, 198). He represents the slave merchants of the interior as complainingthat the Mohammedans of Tunis have abolished slavery, but thatChristians still continue it (I. , 465). "It is difficult to decide howa Christian government is to deal with these countries, where none butMohammedans maintain any sort of government" (II. , 196). "There is avital principle in Islam, which has only to be brought out by areformer to accomplish great things" (I. , 164). 

Reade, in his Savage Africa, discusses the subject fully in a closingchapter, and concludes thus: "Mohammed, a servant of God, redeemed theeastern world. His followers are now redeeming Africa.... Let us aidthe Mohammedans in their great work, the redemption of Africa.... Inevery Mohammedan town there is a public school and a public library. "He complains that Christianity utterly fails to check theft, butMohammedanism stops it entirely (pp. 135, 579, English ed. ). 

For Asiatic Mohammedanism see Sleeman's Recollections, II. , 164, andcompare Tennent's Christianity in Ceylon, p. 330, and Max Müller'sChips from a German Workshop, II. , 351. The London Spectator, inApril, 1869, stated that "Mohammedanism gains thousands of convertsevery year, " and thus described the activity of its organization, thestatement being condensed in the Boston Journal: "Of all thesesocieties, the largest, the most powerful, the most widely diffused, is the Mohammedan population. Everywhere it has towns, villages, temples, places within which no infidel foot ever is or can be set. Its missionaries wander everywhere, keeping up the flame ofIslam, --the hope that the day is coming, is at hand, when the whitecurs shall pass away, and the splendid throne which Timour won for thefaithful shall again be theirs. They have their own papers, their ownmessengers, their own mail carriers, and they trust no other. Repeatedly, before the telegraph was established, their agentsoutstripped the fastest couriers the government could employ. Thegovernment express was carried by Mussulmans, who allowed the privatemessengers to get on a few hours ahead. Every dervish, moollah, ormissionary, is a secret agent. This organization, which has alwaysexisted, has of late been drawn closer, partly as the result of theirgreat mutiny, which taught the priests their hold over the soldiery, partly by the expiration of the 'century of expiation, ' and partly bythe marvelous revival of the Puritan element in Mohammedanism itself. "

[K] See Southey's Wesley, chap. III. Report of Joint Delegation of theSociety of Friends, 1869. Hedge's Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition, p. 83. Coffin's New Way Round the World, pp. 270, 308, 361. Colden'sHistory of the Five Indian Nations (dedication). He says also, "Wehave reason to be ashamed that those infidels, by our conversation andneighborhood, are become worse than they were before they knew us. " Itappears from this book (as from other witnesses), that one of theworst crimes now practiced by the Indians has sprung up since thatday, being apparently stimulated by the brutalities practiced bywhites towards Indian women. Colden says, "I have been assured thatthere is not an instance of their offering the least violence to thechastity of any woman that was their captive" (Vol. I. , p. 9, 3d ed. ). Compare Parkman's Pontiac, II. , 236. 

[L] "Cum ea quæ Romani polluerant fornicatione, nunc mundent barbaricastitate. "--_Salvian de Gubern. Dei. _ ed. 1623, p. 254, quoted inGilly's Vigilantius, p. 360. 

[M] "Neither history nor more recent experience can furnish anyexample of the long retention of pure Christianity by a peoplethemselves rude and unenlightened. In all the nations of Europe, embracing every period since the second century, Christianity must beregarded as having taken the hue and complexion of the social statewith which it was incorporated, presenting itself unsullied, contaminated, or corrupted, in sympathy with the enlightenment orignorance or debasement of those by whom it had been originallyembraced. The rapid and universal degeneracy of the early Asiaticchurches is associated with the decline of education and theintellectual decay of the communities among whom they wereestablished. "--_Tennent's Christianity in Ceylon_, p. 273. For theinfluence of Mohammedanism on the revival of letters in Europe, seeAndres, Origine di ogni litteratura. Jourdain, Recherches critiquessur les traductions latines d'Aristote. Schmölders, Ecolesphilosophiques entre les Arabes. Forster, Mohammedanism Unveiled. Urquhart, Pillars of Hercules. Lecky's Rationalism, II. , 284. 

[N] "Quid igitur nos antecellimus? Num ingenio, doctrina, morummoderatione illos superamus? Nequaquam. Sed vera Dei agnitione, invocatione et celebratione præstamus. "--_Melancthon_, quoted byFeuerbach, Essence of Christianity (Eng. Tr. ) p. 284. He also citesthe passage from Luther. 

[O] Rabbi Wise's remarks may be found in the Report of the FreeReligious Association for 1869, p. 118. For Swaamee Narain, seeHeber's Journal, II. , 109-121 (Am. Ed. ). For Ram Mohun Roy, see histranslation of the Sama Veda (Calcutta, 1816), his two tracts on theburning of widows (Calcutta, 1818, 1820), and other pamphlets. VictorJacquemont wrote of him from Calcutta in 1830, "Il n'est pas Chrétien, quoi qu'on en dise.... Les honnetes Anglais l'exècrent parce que, disent-ils, c'est un affreux déiste. "--_Letters_, I. , 288. 

Transcriber's Note

The following amendments have been made:

 Page 4--Budhhism amended to Buddhism--"... Read Buddha, and you have Buddhism; ... "

 Page 4, footnote B--valuble amended to valuable--"The Parsee creed is given as above in a valuable article ... "

 Page 9, footnote D--omitted closing bracket added--"... (tr. By Goodwin, I. , 293). "

 Page 13--omitted opening quote added (cross-checked against a different edition)--"... Description of Patroclus furnishes "language which might convey ... ""

 Page 15, footnote J--Mohamedanism amended to Mohammedanism--"... Fails to check theft, but Mohammedanism stops it entirely ... "

 Page 15, footnote J--s amended to is--"... Is at hand, when the white curs shall pass away, ... "

 Page 20--omitted closing quote added (cross-checked against a different edition)--""... Has always been accustomed, " says the Roman Catholic Digby, ... "

 Page 23--gorgeeous amended to gorgeous--"The priests kneeled in gorgeous robes, ... "

Accent errors in the Greek text have been repaired without note. Thefollowing amendments have also been made:

 Page 9, footnote D--τον amended to τοῦ--"Ἀεὶ τὸν ἀδικοῦντα τοῦ ἀδικουμένου ἀθλιώτερον ... "

 Page 9, footnote D--ἀνταδυκεῖν amended to ἀνταδικεῖν--"... τοῦ ἀδικεῖν οὔτε τοῦ ἀνταδικεῖν. "

 Page 9, footnote D--῎Σλεγέ amended to Ἔλεγέ--"Ἔλεγέ τε τὸν φίλον δεῖν εὐεργετεῖν, ... "

 Page 12, footnote G--to amended to ti--"... φιλανθρωπίας δοκῶ αὐτοῖς ὅ τί περ ἔχω ... "