bout this, did not agree with Lao, but
declared that kindness ought to be recompensed with kindness, but
injury with justice, as if private morality ought not to rise higher
than public policy. "Resent it not when you are reviled," Lao
teaches; and "He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes
himself is mighty." "He who knows when he has enough is rich." "The
weakest things in the world subjugate the strongest." The _Book of
Recompenses_, which is the practical manual of Taoists and is
universally read in China, sets up a high ideal of goodness, and
claims to be studied with devotion and earnestness. The task of
self-discipline is represented as one requiring faith and courage,
the continuous efforts of a lifetime, and unceasing watchfulness. If
we judge Taoism either by its philosophy or by its morals, we must
assign it a high rank among the efforts which have been made to guide
men in the way of wisdom. As a religion, however, it is a dismal
failure, and shows how little philosophy and morals can do without a
historical religious framework to support them. Taoism was not at
first a religion, and was not fitted to become one, as it neither
offered any sacred objects of its own for pious sentiment to cling
to, nor, like Confucianism, leant upon the state system. The religion
which looks to Lao as its chief figure is not based on his teaching;
at most it is connected with some of his less important doctrines. It
did not take a place in the world till five centuries after the
philosopher's death, and its rise was due partly to the emperor named
above, who was opposed to Confucius, and partly to teachers who
brought forward isolated doctrines of Lao's system which admitted of
a popular application. When the religion appears it is a system not
of philosophy but of magic. Lao had spoken of immortality as the
portion of those who lived according to Tao; under the Chin dynasty
(220 B.C.) Taoism is engaged in a search for the fairy islands, where
the herb of immortality is to be found; in the first century of our
era the head of Taoism is devising a pill which shall renew his
youth. When Buddhism enters China, in the same century Taoism borrows
from it the apparatus of religion, temples, monasteries, and
liturgies, and sets out on its career as a church.

It was not without reason that Buddhism was sent for, if we are truly
informed, by the rulers of China, or that it spread over the country,
in the first century of ou