ploration, and many who
have spent their lives among what they consider inferior races are
uneasy when they retire and settle at home. In fact European
civilization is not satisfying and Asia can still offer something more
attractive to many who are far from Asiatic in spirit. Yet though most
who have paid even a passing visit to the East feel its charm, the
history, art and literature of Asia are still treated with ignorant
indifference in cultured circles--an ignorance and indifference which are
extraordinary in Englishmen who have so close a connection with India
and devote a disproportionate part of their education to ancient Greece
and Rome. I have heard a professor of history in an English university
say that he thought the history of India began with the advent of the
British and that he did not know that China had any history at all. And
Matthew Arnold in speaking of Indian thought[91] hardly escaped meriting
his own favourite epithets of condemnation, Philistine and _saugrenu_.

Europeans sometimes mention it as an amazing and almost ridiculous
circumstance that an educated Chinese can belong to three religions,
Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. But I find this attitude of mind
eminently sensible. Confucianism is an admirable religion for State
ceremonies and College chapels. By attending its occasional rites one
shows a decent respect for Heaven and Providence and commits oneself to
nothing. And though a rigid Confucianist may have the contempt of a
scholar and statesman for popular ideas, yet the most devout Buddhist
and Taoist can conform to Confucianism without scruple, whereas many who
have attended an English coronation service must have wondered at the
language which they seemed to approve of by their presence. And in China
if you wish to water the aridity of Confucianism, you can find in
Buddhism or Taoism whatever you want in the way of emotion or philosophy
and you will not be accused of changing your religion because you take
this refreshment. This temper is not good for creating new and profound
religious thought, but it is good for sampling and appreciating the
"varieties of religious experience" which offer their results as guides
for this and other lives.

For religion is systematized religious experience and this experience
depends on temperament. There can therefore be no one religion in the
European sense and it is one of the Hindus' many merits that they
recognize this. Some people ask of r