n religion none at all. Europe has sometimes
shown an interest in Asiatic religions, but on the whole an antipathy
to them. Christianity originated in Palestine, which is a
Mediterranean rather than an Asiatic country, and its most important
forms, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, took shape on European
soil. Such cults as the worship of Isis and Mithra were prevalent in
Europe but they gained their first footing among Asiatic slaves and
soldiers and would perhaps not have maintained themselves among
European converts only. And Buddhism, though it may have attracted
individual minds, has never produced any general impression west of
India. Both in Spain and in south-eastern Europe Islam was the
religion of invaders and made surprisingly few converts. Christian
heretics, such as the Nestorians and Monophysites, who were expelled
from Constantinople and had their home in Asia, left the west alone
and proselytized in the east. The peculiar detestation felt by the
Church for the doctrines of the Manichaeans was perhaps partly due to
the fact that they were in spirit Asiatic. And the converse of this
antipathy is also true: the progress of Christianity in Asia has been
insignificant.

But when people of the same race profess different creeds, these
creeds do influence one another and tend to approximate. This is
specially remarkable in India, where Islam, in theory the
uncompromising opponent of image worship and polytheism, is
sometimes in practice undistinguishable from the lower superstitions
of Hinduism. In the middle ages Buddhism and Hinduism converged until
they coincided so completely that Buddhism disappeared. In China it
often needs an expert to distinguish the manifestations of Taoism and
Buddhism: in Japan Buddhism and the old national religion were
combined in the mixed worship known as Ryobu Shinto. In the
British Isles an impartial observer would probably notice that
Anglicans and English Roman Catholics (not Irish perhaps) have more in
common than they think.

There are clearly two sets of causes which may divide a race between
religions: internal movements, such as the rise of Buddhism, and
external impulses, such as missions or conquest. Conquest pure and
simple is best illustrated by the history of Islam, also by the
conversion of Mexico and South America to Roman Catholicism. But even
when conversion is pacific, it will generally be found that, if it is
successful on a large scale, it means the