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Confucianism and Taoism. Behind each is a great personality, giving it 
character. Confucius was a conservative, reverent for the past, a reformer 
and transmitter. Lao-Tse was an independent, radical thinker, seeking 
ultimate truth ; a revolutioniser, discoverer, creator. They were contem- 
poraries ; Lao-Tse being born 604 B.c., Confucius, 551 B.c. Confucius 
changed the religion he transmitted, became the incarnation of its spirit, and 
finally its deity. He was practical and ethical. Lao-Tse was greater in 
thought, taught a deeper and truer religion, but too speculative to succeed. 
His religion has been eclipsed by Confucianism. The Chinese conceive God 
as impersonal, the king as ruler by divine appointment. The most distinctive 
feature of their faith is ancestor-worship. 
The lecturer did his best work on the religions of India. His review 
covered seven lectures, each more than an hour long. The four great religions of 
India are : (1) Vedic religion ; (2) Brahminism ; (3) Buddhism ; (4) Reformed 
Brahminism, or Hinduism. The first is contained in the Rig-Veda, the 
oldest Aryan literature, probably belonging to the seventeenth century before 
our era. The religion of this period is a religion of nature ; bright, full of 
vigour and beauty. Its gods are the powers of nature. As the period 
advances, there is a gradual growth of the speculative spirit, resulting in 
agnosticism. 
Here Brahminism begins. It marks a change in the Hindu spirit. 
Spontaneity is gone ; formalismhascome. ‘The language of the sacred books 
is dead ; priests are their interpreters. Through them alone is access to the 
gods. The gods are reached through sacrifice ; only the priests can offer it. 
Thus arises the sacerdotal idea, making the priesthood an absolute power. 
Gods and men, are separated by the priests, and through them alone can 
unite. The speculation which began in the early period grows and ripens in 
Brahminism. In answer to the question as to what is ultimate being, its 
relation to the world and to man, Brahminism says that Brahma is all in all. 
From him, by evolution and emanation, all comes; unto him all returns. 
He only is permanent. In Brahminism, individual souls are like the 
‘atoms’ of modern physicists—ever varying forms of the one substance. To 
be swallowed up in Brahma is supreme bliss. This is gained by knowledge- 
Who knows the supreme spirit becomes spirit. Brahminism created the 
caste system, with the absolute sovereignty of the priesthood. The religion 
had no ethical quality ; it was purely metaphysical. 
Buddhism was the child and supplanter of Brahminism—a revolt from 
the system of priestly sacrifice. It is an ethical religion. Its metaphysics 
are akin to the pessimism of Schopenhauer. Buddhism owes everything to 
Buddha. He lived toward the close of the sixth century Bc. He was 
thoughtful, noble, pure ; his soul was burdened for men ; he found no satis- 
faction in the sacrificial system; he aspired to know the ultimate truth. 
How his speculation, having for its motive the good of his fellowmen, resulted 
in the gloomiest, most hopeless pessimism, is a most interesting study. It 
cannot be entered into here. Under his circumstances, his conclusion was 
