Page:India — Wonderland of the East.djvu/12

 2 The Progressive Religions

we enter on the consideration of the last of our World-Empires, and seek a little change, from the often dreary record of crime which has been demanding our attention, in the peaceful land of the East Aryan, or, rather, the Aryan of the Far East. Indeed, there is a reason for turning our thoughts to the Indian wonderland more weighty than any which have been hitherto adduced, though it arises out of Alexander's connexion with it. We have been considering the most impor- tant movement (as concerns ourselves) which history chronicles — the hellenization of the world. We must never forget the sister movement, which affected lands too distant for even the faintest ripple of the Hellenic wave to reach them. The second movement takes place nearly a century later than the first. While that brief Spartan revival under Agis and Cleomenes is suffering eclipse through the jealousy of Aratus (whose peculiar way of injuring Sparta was by destroying the only other force* which made for regeneration in Hellas), a missionary movement of the highest importance is proceeding at the other end of Alexander's world. Asoka, the 'Constantine of Buddhism,' is spreading that broad and humanitarian cult all over the East. What that propaganda was to a large portion of Asia we shall see as we proceed. Can we not trace the evidence of design also here? Each part of the globe obtains the religion which is most suited for it, as it starts on the path of progress. Judaism is destined for the mysterious Peninsula which is the link between the East and the West, Buddhism and Islam are for Asia, Christianity is for Europe.