hou god with
lotus-eyes; Reverence to thee, thou creator of all things; Reverence
be to thee, O Vishnu;[67] thou Great Person; first-born one"; all
these facts indicate that if the White-islanders are indeed to be
regarded as foreigners worshipping a strange god, that god is strictly
monotheistic and not trinitarian. Weber lays stress on the expression
'first-born,' which he thinks refers to Christ; but the epithet is old
(Vedic), and is common, and means no more than 'primal deity.'

There is much that appears to be foreign in the epic. This passage
seems rather to be a recollection of some shrine where monotheism
without Christianity was acknowledged. On the other hand, even in the
pseudo-epic, there is much apparently borrowed which yet is altogether
native to Brahmanic land and sect. It is not in any passage which is
proved to be of foreign origin that one reads of the boy of twelve
years who entered among the wise men and confuted their reasoning
(above, p. 382). It is not of course due to Christian influence that
the great 'saint of the stake' is taken by the 'king's men,' is
crucified (or literally impaled) among thieves, and lives so long that
the guard go and tell the king of the miracle;[68] nor is it necessary
to assume that everything elevated is borrowed. "When I revile, I
revile not again," sounds indeed like an echo of Christian teaching,
but how thoroughly Hindu is the reason. "For I know that self-control
is the door of immortality." And in the same breath, with a connection
of meaning patent only when one regards the whole not as borrowed but
as native, follow the words that we have ventured to put upon the
title-page of this volume, as the highest and at the same time the
truest expression of a religion that in bringing the gods to men
raised man to equally with God--"This is a holy mystery which I
declare unto you: There is nothing nobler than humanity."[69]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: He appears in different complete
manifestations, while Vishnu appears only in part, as a
'descent,' _avatar, i.e_., Vishnu is incarnate, Civa appears
whole.]

[Footnote 2: The original story perhaps antedates the
Brahmanic Brahm[=a]. But, for all one knows, when the poem
was first written Brahm[=a] was already decadent as chief
god. In that case two strata of religious belief have been
formally super-imposed, Vishnuism an