to THE INTERNATIONAL QUARTERLY March-June MDCCCCIII W BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY T. W. RHYS-DAVIDS LONDON E can scarcely be surprised that comparisons drawn between Buddhism and Christianity should have proved so attractive to many writers. The cravings, good, bad, and indifferent, to which such comparisons appeal, have a somewhat abiding influence over the minds of men. There is, in the first place, curiosity-happily, be it said, an almost universal characteristic of men and women alike. And, in fact, as will be seen, some of the resemblances are very curious indeed. Then there is the craving, very natural no doubt, to make out, quite convincingly, how very superior one's own views are to those of other people. And this has led to the not altogether tasteful exhibition of a salaried official of one faith picking out, with an air of triumph faintly veiled under a show of impartiality, the weak points, as they seem to him, in a rival creed. Then, again, there is the desire, laudable enough if it could only ever be satisfied, of finding a short cut to the truth by tracing out those points on which all the faiths agree. We find this vain hope cropping up in the most widely separated fields. It lies at the root of the " quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus" of the Catholic theologians; and has been used, with no permanent effect, but in very seductive arguments, by the most determined opponents of the claims of the Catholic priesthood. Finally, such comparisons have actually been made to prove the astounding thesis that, in spite of the long centuries between them, in spite of the widely different histories which lay behind them, in spite of Copyright, 1903, Frederick A. Richardson, all rights reserved. |