truth
and not a creed, which must necessarily become antiquated: it admits the
possibility of new scriptures, new incarnations, new institutions. It
has no quarrel with knowledge or speculation: perhaps it excludes
materialists, because they have no common ground with religion, but it
tolerates even the Sankhya philosophy which has nothing to say about God
or worship. It is truly dynamic and in the past whenever it has seemed
in danger of withering it has never failed to bud with new life and put
forth new flowers.

More than other religions, Hinduism appeals to the soul's immediate
knowledge and experience of God. It has sacred books innumerable but
they agree in little but this, that the soul can come into contact and
intimacy with its God, whatever name be given him and even if he be
superpersonal. The possibility and truth of this experience is hardly
questioned in India and the task of religion is to bring it about, not
to promote the welfare of tribes and states but to effect the
enlightenment and salvation of souls.

The love of the Hindus for every form of argument and philosophizing is
well known but it is happily counterbalanced by another tendency.
Instinct and religion both bring them into close sympathy with nature.
India is in the main an agricultural country[86] and nearly
three-quarters of the population are villagers whose life is bound up
with the welfare of plants and animals and lies at the mercy of rivers
that overflow or skies that withhold the rain. To such people
nature-myths and sacred animals appeal with a force that Europeans
rarely understand. The parrots that perch on the pinnacles of the temple
and the oxen that rest in the shade of its courts are not intruders but
humble brothers of mankind, who may also be the messengers of the gods.

24. _Buddhism in Practice_

As I said above, it is easier to estimate the effects of Buddhism than
of Hinduism, for its history is the chronicle of a great missionary
enterprise and there are abundant materials for studying the results of
its diffusion.

Even its adversaries must admit that it has many excellent qualities. It
preaches morality and charity and was the first religion to proclaim to
the world--not to a caste or country--that these are the foundation of
that Law which if kept brings happiness. It civilized many nations, for
instance the Tibetans and Mongols. It has practised toleration and true
unworldliness, if not without any exceptio