Christ and Other Masters - An Historical Inquiry Into Some of the Chief Parallelisms and Contrasts Between Christianity and the Religious Systems of the Ancient World; With Special Reference to Prevailing Difficulties and Objections #263302

Chap 1 shadowy, the mysterious. In China, on the contrary, imagination exercises very little influence. Relics of the early poetry, in which, if ever, we might hope to trace the operation of this class of faculties, are seldom more than tame and frigid representations of ordinary life. Excepting one important school1 whose Indian tastes and predilections are continually be trayed, the Chinese have no primitive mythus, corre sponding to the vivid and romantic imagery in which different tribes of man had veiled their worship of external nature, or idealised the legends of their simple forefathers. All in China is more common place, more tangible, more practical, more real. 'what the Chinese cannot comprehend with the natural understanding exists not for them, and is an object of their derision.' Hence the Brahman comes to be esteemed by learned followers of Confucius a mere dreamer and fanatic; while in his opinion they are abject and plebeian spirits, selfish, sordid, and materialistic. He disparages the world around him on the plea that it is only an illusion, acting as the transient mirror of the supernatual and enduring they as absolutely yield themselves to the dominion of the seen and temporal; they long for nothing higher.