eligions, Buddhism, for instance, have, it is true, historical
appendages, the life, namely, of their founders: this, however, is not
part and parcel of the dogma but is taken along with it. For example,
the Lalitavistara may be compared with the Gospel so far as it contains
the life of Sakya-muni, the Buddha of the present period of the world's
history: but this is something which is quite separate and different
from the dogma, from the system itself: and for this reason; the lives
of former Buddhas were quite other, and those of the future will be
quite other, than the life of the Buddha of to-day. The dogma is by no
means one with the career of its founder; it does not rest on individual
persons or events; it is something universal and equally valid at all
times. The Lalitavistara is not, then, a gospel in the Christian sense
of the word; it is not the joyful message of an act of redemption; it is
the career of him who has shown how each one may redeem himself. The
historical constitution of Christianity makes the Chinese laugh at
missionaries as story-tellers.

I may mention here another fundamental error of Christianity, an error
which cannot be explained away, and the mischievous consequences of
which are obvious every day: I mean the unnatural distinction
Christianity makes between man and the animal world to which he really
belongs. It sets up man as all-important, and looks upon animals as
merely things. Brahmanism and Buddhism, on the other hand, true to the
facts, recognize in a positive way that man is related generally to the
whole of nature, and specially and principally to animal nature; and in
their systems man is always represented by the theory of metempsychosis
and otherwise, as closely connected with the animal world. The important
part played by animals all through Buddhism and Brahmanism, compared
with the total disregard of them in Judaism and Christianity, puts an
end to any question as to which system is nearer perfection, however
much we in Europe may have become accustomed to the absurdity of the
claim. Christianity contains, in fact, a great and essential
imperfection in limiting its precepts to man, and in refusing rights to
the entire animal world. As religion fails to protect animals against
the rough, unfeeling and often more than bestial multitude, the duty
falls to the police; and as the police are unequal to the task,
societies for the protection of animals are now formed all over Europ