e
illuminating word, _Cat-hold_, and the Arminians by another,
_Monkey-hold_. Could you find better illustrations? The cat takes up the
kitten and carries it in its mouth; the kitten is passive, the cat does
everything. But the little monkey holds on to its mother, and clings
with might and main. Those who have watched the "cat-hold" in the house,
and the "monkey-hold" out in the jungle, can appreciate the accuracy of
these two illustrations.

But running through every form of Hinduism, however contradictory each
to the other may be, there is the underlying thought of pure and simple
Pantheism. And this explains many of the aforesaid contradictions, and
many of the incongruities which are constantly cropping up and
bewildering one who is trying to understand the Hindu trend of thought.
So, though those men all affirmed that there is only one God, they
admitted that they each worshipped several. They saw nothing
inconsistent in this. Just as the air is in everything, so God is in
everything, therefore in the various symbols. And as our King has divers
representative Viceroys and Governors to rule over his dominions in his
name, so the Supreme has these sub-deities, less in power and only
existing by force of Himself, and He, being all-pervasive, can be
worshipped under their forms.

This argument they all unitedly pressed upon me that afternoon, and
though capital answers probably present themselves to your mind, you
might not find they satisfied the Hindu who argues along lines of logic
peculiar to the East, and subtle enough to mystify the practical Western
brain; and then--for we are conceited as well as practical--we are apt
to pity the poor Hindu for being so unlike ourselves; and if we are
wholly unsympathetic, we growl that there is nothing in the argument,
whereas there is a good deal in it, only we do not see it, because we
have never thought out the difficulty in question. Quite opposite,
sometimes we have to meet a type of mind like that of MacDonald's
student of Shakespeare, who "missed a plain point from his eyes being so
sharp that they looked through it without seeing it, having focussed
themselves beyond it." Assuredly there is much to learn before one can
hope to understand the winding of the thread of thought which must be
traced if one would follow the working of the Hindu mind. Let no one
with a facility for untying mental knots think that his gift would be
wasted in India!

The word that struck t