s will be deep-seated and not obvious, for it needs but
little first-hand acquaintance with Asia to learn that all
generalizations about the spirit of the East require careful testing and
that such words as Asiatic or oriental do not connote one type of mind.
For instance in China and Japan the control of the state over religion
is exceptionally strong: in India it is exceptionally weak. The
religious temperaments of these nations differ from one another as much
as the Mohammedan and European temperaments and the fact that many races
have adopted Buddhism and refashioned it to their liking does not
indicate that their mental texture is identical. The cause of this
superficial uniformity is rather that Buddhism in its prime had no
serious rivals in either activity or profundity, but presented itself to
the inhabitants of Eastern Asia as pre-eminently the religion of
civilized men, and was often backed by the support of princes. Yet one
cannot help thinking that its success in Eastern Asia and its failure in
the West are not due merely to politics and geography but must
correspond with some racial idiosyncrasies. Though it is hard to see
what mental features are common to the dreamy Hindus and the practical
Chinese, it may be true that throughout Eastern Asia for one reason or
another such as political despotism, want of military spirit, or on the
other hand a tendency to regard the family, the clan or the state as the
unit, the sense of individuality is weaker than in Western Asia or
Europe, so that pantheism and quietism with their doctrines of the
vanity of the world and the bliss of absorption arouse less opposition
from robust lovers of life. This is the most that can be stated and it
does not explain why there are many Buddhists in Japan but none in
Persia.

But apart from Buddhism and all creeds which have received a name,
certain ideas are universal in this vast region. One of them is the
belief in nature spirits, beings who dwell in rocks, trees, streams and
other natural objects and possess in their own sphere considerable
powers of doing good or ill. The Nagas, Yakshas and Bhutas of India, the
Nats of Burma, the Peys of Siam, the Kami of Japan and the Shen of China
are a few items in a list which might be indefinitely extended. In many
countries this ghostly population is as numerous as the birds of the
forest: they haunt every retired spot and perch unseen under the eaves
of every house. Theology has not usual