The Metaphysic of Christianity and - Buddhism : a SymPhony. By Major-General
Dawsonne M. Strong,'C.B. (Watts and Co. -2s. Ed.) L—This little book is a sign of the iiiaretthed interest-new being taken in the greatest and noblest of -the 'religions-of the East It is also an attempt at a sound.00raparistaa-% betWeen-tbe leading ideas of Bud- dhism and those of ChriailismitY: 'The -fhitertakes a view 'Of Buddhism in some inipOrtaiat=.1feSpeots--differerit, from that 'of some- English authorities:- He doe not find in it the blank atheism which such a writer eaDt-IthySIPavids finds; nofdiVeshe believe for one moment that Buddhism in -its -doctrine.- cif- Nirvana teaches annihilation of the soul. It 'is due to the diffioulty which the European finds- in . comprehending the Oriental mind that this mis- take has arisen; • -Nirvana is an: almost • unthinkable concep- tion to the hard, logical Mind of the West which finds its delight in action rather- than in Contemplation. Both Christ and Gautama, our author holds, must have found the tamest diffi- dully in impressing' on the minds of their hearers the esoteric doctrines which eaehtaight. rt is Only-the "cultivated houmenal instincts" which can apprehend the finest ideas of religion. Or, as the Bible has it, spiritual things are spiritually discerned. No doubt this is true, and, therefore, the attempt to approach Bud- dhism frcini the point of vie* of the logical understanding is hope- less. We doubt whether there is so close an affinity between Christianity and 'Buddhism as our - author suggests.- The 'idea of the personal God wiTh whom 'man can commune, and who became man in Order to-'recledin 'the:. race froth the bondage of evil, is a different conception from the pure undifferentiated being of Bud- dhism: II:Faintly ethical deductions there is doubtless -a close agreement ; but, as the author hints; the Buddhist people are far More-tide to theieeihical 'ideals than. melt of us are to ours. In spite of the rather detached and fragmentary Way in which this little-work is 'written, we have. found it very interesting and sug- gaStive, aiithe afitheiliis 'evidently given much labour and-thought to his subject.
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