eneral account of European politics. As for many centuries the life
of Europe has expressed itself in politics, so for even longer ages
the life of India, which has more inhabitants than western
Europe,[401] has found expression in religion, speculation and
philosophy, and has left of all this thought a voluminous record,
mighty in bulk if wanting in dates and events. And why should it
chronicle them? The truly religious mind does not care for the history
of religion, just as among us the scientific mind does not dwell on
the history of science.

Yet in spite of their exuberance Hinduism and the jungle have
considerable uniformity. Here and there in a tropical forest some
well-grown tree or brilliant flower attracts attention, but the
general impression left on the traveller by the vegetation as he
passes through it mile after mile is infinite repetition as well as
infinite luxuriance. And so in Hinduism. A monograph on one god or one
teacher is an interesting study. But if we continue the experiment,
different gods and different teachers are found to be much the same.
We can write about Vishnuism and Sivaism as if they were different
religions and this, though incomplete, is not incorrect. But in their
higher phases both show much the same excellences and when degraded
both lead to much the same abuses, except that the worship of Vishnu
does not allow animal sacrifices. This is true even of externals. In
the temples of Madura, Poona and Benares, the deities, the rites, the
doctrines, the race of the worshippers and the architecture are all
different, yet the impression of uniformity is strong. In spite of
divergences the religion is the same in all three places: it smacks of
the soil and nothing like it can be found outside India.

Hinduism is an unusual combination of animism and pantheism, which are
commonly regarded as the extremes of savage and of philosophic belief.
In India both may be found separately but frequently they are combined
in startling juxtaposition. The same person who worships Vishnu as
identical with the universe also worships him in the form of a pebble
or plant.[402] The average Hindu, who cannot live permanently in the
altitudes of pantheistic thought, regards his gods as great natural
forces, akin to the mighty rivers which he also worships, irresistible
and often beneficent but also capricious and destructive. Whereas
Judaism, Christianity and Islam all identify the moral law with the
will a