162 SSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



IX. 



SOME CURIOUS PARALLELS BETWEEN 

 GREEK AND CHINESE THOUGHT. 



[A Paper read before the Aristotelian Society, April 29, 



THERE are at the present time three religions, if 

 we are right in calling them religions (a question 

 which we may postpone for the present), which 

 have a legal standing in China. They are Con- 

 fucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Of these, 

 Buddhism has no claim to be indigenous, as it 

 never found its way to China till after the Christian 

 era. With regard to Taoism, we find ourselves at 

 once in a difficulty ; for Taoism, as it exists now, 

 has little or no real affinity with the older Taoistic 

 literature. Dr. Legge 2 speaks of it as " begotten 

 by Buddhism out of the old superstitions of the 

 country ; " and in his article on Lao-Tze in the 

 " Encyclopaedia Britannica," he draws a sharp dis- 

 tinction between Taoism as a philosophy and 



1 This paper embodies the substance of a note on Chinese 

 Philosophy prefixed by A. L. M. to H. A. Giles's Chuang-Tzu, 

 Mystic, Moralist, and Philosopher. 



2 Tao-te-Ching, p. 4. 



