The Bible pages bear witness, that Israelites too often
tried to make the same fountain give forth sweet waters and bitter, and
to grow thistles and grapes on the same stem, by uniting the cults of
Jehovah and the Baalim. King Solomon's enterprises in the same direction
are more creditable to him as a politician than as a worshipper.[3] In
the history of Christianity one cannot commend the efforts either of the
Gnostics or the neo-Platonists, nor always justify the medieval
missionaries in their methods. Nor can we accurately describe as
successful the ingenuity of Vossius, the Dutch theologian, who,
following the scheme of Euhemerus, discovered the Old Testament
patriarchs in the disguise of the gods of Paganism. Nor, even though
Germany be the land of learning, can the clear-headed scholar agree with
some of her rationalists, who are often busy in the same field of
industry, setting forth wild criticism as "science."
The Kami and the Buddhas.
In Japan, to solve the problem of reconciliation between the ancient
traditions of the divine ancestors and the dogmas of the Indian cult, it
was necessary that some master spirit, profoundly learned in the two
Ways, of the Kami and of the Buddhas, should be bold, and also as it
seems, crafty and unscrupulous.
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