NOTES AND QUERIES 231 



misplaced devotion have overladen it; "instead of which marvels, 

 we have only the figure of a lonely man walking towards Benares." 



This chapter on the Gospel of Gautama Buddha, I must, however, 

 leave to you to discover, study and admire ; as also its inset on the 

 two great Chinese teachers, Laotzu and Confucius. Mr. Wells observes 

 that all these teachings were personal and tolerant doctrines ; doctrines 

 of a Way. of a Path, of a Nobility — not doctrines requiring the 

 segregation of their followers into a Church. To that extent they are 

 all flatly contradictory to the jealous exclusiveness of such a faith 

 as Judaism, with its God of Terrible Truth, who will brook no 

 lurking belief in any magic or witchcraft or old custom, or any sacrific- 

 ing to the God-King, or other trifling with the stern unity of things. 

 So Buddhism and the other Eastern faiths, for all their beauties, 

 had no self -cleansing power in them. They took over the idols and 

 temples and altars of the local gods, and every disease of the corrupt 

 religions that they sought to replace, and this, in spite of their wide 

 range, led them to stagnation and corruption. 



Chapter 29. The Casars between the Sea and the Great Plains. 



So the great opportunity of the long peace was lost, and when the 

 evil days of the 3rd century came, and mutiny and murder replaced 

 adoption as the usual method of succeeding to the throne, no one 

 seemed to care very much if the barbarians from without were 

 getting . the better of the equally ungovernable legions within the 

 empire. But all this time there was going on a stir of the Great 

 Plains. Under the Han dynasty, which had succeeded to and con- 

 solidated the Empire founded by Shih Huang-ti, China had grown 

 into a greater and more solid affair than Rome, and was driving the 

 Huns and nomads west before her expansion, and the Huns were 

 pushing the Slavs and the Germans back on to the Roman frontiers. 

 So Mr. Wells sees it. I think he is inclined to exaggerate the 

 greatness and solidity of that Han dynasty, China, perhaps not seeing 

 clearly enough how in those days there was no very clear demarcation 

 between a geographical exploration, a diplomatic embassy and a 

 military expedition, so that such travellers as Chang Ch'ien and 

 P'an Chao, when they visited the shores of the Caspian, even with 

 large and well armed retinues, by no means added all the intervening 

 stepes of Turkestan to the effective dominions of the Chinese throne. 

 The noteworthy fact, however, is that Mr. Wells has tried to co-relate 

 that Han History with the history of the western world ; he does see 

 that — little as either of them realised it at the time — they reacted 

 each on the other. 



