Noeldeke, _Sketches from Eastern History_ (Eng. tr.),
p. 25 ff.

[2085] A creed usually contains also an affirmation of the
authority of the book on which it is based. Some religious
bodies do not regard any book as absolutely authoritative,
and their creeds are merely expressions of their independent
religious beliefs.

[2086] So among the Egyptians, Hebrews, Hindus, Greeks,
Romans, and others.

[2087] Cf. Sabatier, _Authority in Religion_ (Eng. tr.), and
the bibliography therein given.

[2088] The contention that a given religion must triumph
because it is divine and its triumph is divinely predicted
introduces a discussion that cannot be gone into here, where
the object is to consider existing facts.

[2089] Babism (or Bahaism) also claims to be universal, but
its origin is so recent that this claim cannot be tested.

[2090] Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_.

[2091] It has been professed by a few persons in Europe and
America, but the so-called "theosophy" is not Buddhism. On
supposed points of contact between the New Testament and
Buddhism cf. C. F. Aiken, _The Dhamma of Gotama the Buddha
and the Gospel of Jesus the Christ_.

[2092] T. W. Arnold, _The Preaching of Islam_.

[2093] See Tiele, article "Religion" in _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_, 9th ed., and cf. his _Elements of the Science
of Religion_, i, 28 ff.; R. de la Grasserie, _Des religions
comparees au point de vue sociologique_; M. Jastrow, _The
Study of Religion_, pp. 58 ff.; article "Religion" in
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, 11th ed.

[2094] Cases of adoption of alien cults bodily are here of
course excluded; in such cases the cults are to be referred
to the creators and not to the borrowers.

[2095] In some forms of Brahmanism, in Buddhism, and in some
modern systems this Power is impersonal or undefined.

[2096] On Gautama's attitude toward divine beings cf. Rhys
Davids, _Buddhism_, p. 87 f.; Hopkins, _Religions of India_,
p. 333 f.

[2097] W. D. Whitney, _Princeton Review_, May, 1881.

[2098] Kuenen, _National Religions and Universal Religions_
(Hibbert Lectures, 1882); Tiele, _Elements of the Science of
Religion_, i, 43 ff.; Jastrow, _Study of Religion_, p. 89
ff.

[2099] Confucian China and Shintoist Japan are excluded; but
in both these countries Buddhism is widespread. Pure
Confucianism is not a religion, and the old Shinto is no
longer believed i