who see thee, and, in every tongue
that is spoken, thou art praised.
Polytheism and Islam grope after thee,
Each religion says, 'Thou art one, without equal,'
Be it mosque, men murmur holy prayer; or church, the bells ring, for
love of thee;
Awhile I frequent the Christian cloister, anon the mosque:
But thee only I seek from fane to fane.
Thine elect know naught of heresy or orthodoxy, whereof neither stands
behind the screen of thy truth.
Heresy to the heretic,--dogma to the orthodox,--
But the dust of the rose-petal belongs to the heart of the perfume
seller."[8]

[Footnote 8: "Islam and Christianity," p. 68.]

This religious cosmopolitanism developed into what has been called an
"Eclectic Pantheism," which welcomed all men and satisfied no one.

Even though Aurangzeeb tried to stem this tide of liberalism and to
rehabilitate the intolerance and cruelty of ancient Islam, his effort
was not only unsuccessful, but was partly instrumental in bringing on
the downfall of the Empire. And the faith of Mohammed in India has
revealed, ever since, the sickly pallor and want of vigour which
tropical life and contact with Hinduism necessarily entail.

When the government of this land ceased to be Mohammedan, and the
sceptre passed into the hands of the British, whose glory it has been,
for centuries, to protect its subjects from the bloody hand of
intolerance and to vouchsafe unto all not only the blessed boon of
_Pax Britannica_, but also the inexpressible right and privilege of
religious liberty,--then passed away, never to return, we hope, from
this motherland of tolerance, the ghastly sceptre of bigotry and
fanaticism. And thus Islam ceased to be enforced and propagated by the
strong arm of law and by the pointed argument of sword and spear of
the legions. It has, since then, enjoyed in this land a free and an
open field for the exercise of its powers of persuasion. But its
increase has not been marked. And what there has been of progress has
been owing to its other characteristics, which we will mention later.

Thus the faith of the Arabian prophet has lost, in India, not only its
vigour, but also its prestige and purity, by contact with the lower
faiths of the land, especially with the ancestral faith of India. From
that religion it has taken unto itself many of the base superstitions,
and not a few of the idolatrous practices, which have characterized