the case of Hindoos and
Buddhists. Although it is a matter of common knowledge that about the
fifth century of our era Buddhism was driven out by the Brahmans from
its ancient home in the southernmost part of the Indian peninsula, and
afterwards spread over the whole of the rest of Asia, as far as I know,
we have no definite account of any crimes of violence, or wars, or
cruelties, perpetrated in the course of it.

That may, of course, be attributable to the obscurity which veils the
history of those countries; but the exceedingly mild character of their
religion, together with their unceasing inculcation of forbearance
towards all living things, and the fact that Brahmanism by its caste
system properly admits no proselytes, allows one to hope that their
adherents may be acquitted of shedding blood on a large scale, and of
cruelty in any form. Spence Hardy, in his excellent book on _Eastern
Monachism_, praises the extraordinary tolerance of the Buddhists, and
adds his assurance that the annals of Buddhism will furnish fewer
instances of religious persecution than those of any other religion.

As a matter of fact, it is only to monotheism that intolerance is
essential; an only god is by his nature a jealous god, who can allow no
other god to exist. Polytheistic gods, on the other hand, are naturally
tolerant; they live and let live; their own colleagues are the chief
objects of their sufferance, as being gods of the same religion. This
toleration is afterwards extended to foreign gods, who are, accordingly,
hospitably received, and later on admitted, in some cases, to an
equality of rights; the chief example of which is shown by the fact,
that the Romans willingly admitted and venerated Phrygian, Egyptian and
other gods. Hence it is that monotheistic religions alone furnish the
spectacle of religious wars, religious persecutions, heretical
tribunals, that breaking of idols and destruction of images of the gods,
that razing of Indian temples, and Egyptian colossi, which had looked on
the sun three thousand years, just because a jealous god had said, _Thou
shalt make no graven image_.

But to return to the chief point. You are certainly right in insisting
on the strong metaphysical needs of mankind; but religion appears to me
to be not so much a satisfaction as an abuse of those needs. At any rate
we have seen that in regard to the furtherance of morality, its utility
is, for the most part, problematical, its disadvantag