14 sIR M. MONIER WILLIAMS ON THE MONISM, PANTHEISM, AND 
is a most subtle system of pantheistic philosophy, which, 
while it is tolerant of Christianity and claims to have much 
common ground with Christianity, admits of the development 
of every form of corrupt religious doctrine and idolatrous 
superstition. 
It is on this account a very formidable antagonist—more 
formidable than either Zoroastrianism or Muhammadanism 
—an opponent indeed of such hydra-lhke vitality that no 
Christian missionary can hope to cope with it effectively, 
unless he be armed with the truest and most divinely 
tempered weapons in the whole Christian Armoury. 
And let me further say that the grossest polytheistic 
superstitions of modern India, absurd and deplorable as they 
may appear to us, are not to be scornfully brushed aside, as 
if they were mere heaps of rubbish obstructing the onward 
march of the victorious army of Evangelists, and quite un- 
worthy of serious examination. 
On the contrary, these, to us tangled and unintelligible, 
masses of time-honoured traditionary doctrines and practices, 
which I have elsewhere treated of under the general name 
of Hindiiism, are really like rugged jungle-clad mountain 
ranges, rising one behind the other in the path of the pro- 
gress of Christianity. Or rather perhaps may they be com- 
pared to a series of outposts grouped in circle after circle 
around the ever-receding fortress of Pantheistic Brahmanism. 
Hence it is that the proud and self-confident Hindi, when 
apparently driven in defeat from the defence of any one 
point, retires, without the slightest sense of humiliation, to 
other coigns of resistance, and has always the last resource of 
retreating behind what he conceives to be the impregnable 
Brahmanical dogma that :— 
There is only one God—only one Infinite Essence—which, 
although inseparably one, is to be identified with every really 
existing thing, and may manifest itself in manifold ways and 
in different forms in different places. 
The Prestpent (Sir G. G. Stokes, Bart., V.P.R.S.).—I am sure 
T need not ask you to return your thanks to Sir Monier Williams, 
for the very learned and deep discourse with which he has favoured 
us. (Applause.) I now invite those present who have attended 
to these religious views of other nations, to make some remarks. 
C. Cottinewoop, Esq., M.D.—I venture to call attention to the 
interesting fact that in these very ancient books we find a nearer 
