Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-27

! temple to the practice Of the pure Budd-
! hist faith, and presumably from that GEN.
| ter to diffuse the Light of Asia to all parts
of the world where it can be made to
shine.
The arguments on which the poet of the
East appeals to the power and wealth of
Christianity for the restoration of tenn
pie to religion generally rated as heather
are three-fold. First, there is the poetic
idea comprised in the restoration of re-
ligion thousands Of years old, and the re-
vival of a temple which typifies the Oldest
traditions or myths of this globe at least.
Next. the appeal to Christianity is rein
forced by the claim that Buddhism is
closely related to Christianity, and, if not
variation of it, is at least an avaunt
courier for its doctrines. Finally, the
argument perhaps the most calculated to
appeal to the modern spirit is the legal
principle that religious property must be
kept strictly to the service Of the tenets
for which it was founded. In this cOun-
Try the separation of Church and State has
brought this doctrine to its strongest de-
velopment The law will not support the
Methodist, Catholic or Hebrew religion;
but it will enact that when property has
been devoted to either the worship or
theteaching of those religions it must be
kept strictly to that purpose. On the
same principle of justice the pure doc
trine of Buddha should be taught in Budd-
hist temples. Sir Edwin Arnold's appeal
on these considerations does not make it
quite clear whether the Brahmins now
possessed of the desired temple are to be
bought off or dispossessed by force of
arms, question which will seem of prime
importance to the practical world.
As poetic idea, the proposition of the
author of "The Light of Asia" is princi-
pally interesting as indicating remarka-
bly, large estimate of the effect of that
work on the civilized world. For it must
take a magnified view of the function of !
that poem to suppose that it has prepared |
civilization to busy itself during the next |
century or two with restoring the temples |
of ancient and extinct religions. When |
such a work is once started the world will |
be kept busy for several generations with |
that which must follow on the same pffn- !
ciples. For besides the immense contract |
far East there must be an even greater |
task of restitution and restoration on the |
same logic Not to speak of Druid graves |
and the Aztec teocallis, the same theory |
must agitate half the civilized world. |
The same reasons that call for the
of the Buddhist temples will
require the restitution of Westminster
Abbey and half the cathedrals of England
tc the Roman Catholic faith; will take st.
Sophia from the Moslems and give it to
the Greek Church; must restore the
Olympian divinities to the Pantheon and
Acropolis; and the worship of almost pre-
historic Egypt to the Pyramids and the.
ruins of Thebes and Karnaek
Practical civilization will pause and con-
sider before undertaking any job of that
sort Sir Edwin is charming poet and
writer, but he has hardly the power neces-
'ary to inaugurate a crusade of this sort
The world is too much occupied with its
present and future to engage in the g-
yantic work of reviving a long-buried
past.