60 Evolution and Religion 



such as the duty of forgiving insults and not rewarding 

 evil with evil. All virtues, we are told, spring from 

 Maitri, and this Maitri can only be translated by 

 charity and love." 



Peaceableness 



There is one more remarkable thing to be noticed in 

 Buddhism besides its spirit of self-abnegation and 

 benevolence; and that is its constant appeal to reason. 

 Like Christianity, it will have nothing to do with vio- 

 lence. It abolished human sacrifice and all other 

 offerings of blood, substituting therefor flowers, fruits, 

 and incense. Its missionaries overran Asia, preaching 

 the new gospel of benevolence to all created beings; 

 and how successful they were may be seen in the fact 

 that it numbers among its adherents to-day (again like 

 the Christian faith), practically one third of the entire 

 human race. It did indeed vanish from the home that 

 gave it birth, expelled by the contrary genius of the 

 Hindu mind, but in Thibet, Nepaul, Ceylon, Burmah, 

 Siam, China, and Japan it has flourished for centuries. 

 And that it has succeeded in softening men's manners, 

 in raising them from the law of the jungle to the higher 

 law of unselfishness, who shall deny ? 



Egypt 



That the dark religion of Egypt contained this same 

 germinal idea of self-sacrifice for the general good, 

 seems at first thought impossible. This is because we 

 confuse the religion of Egypt with its theology. The 



