BOOK.
1 Kitab ; Kutub, . ARAB. ruathatam, Pustak Choptb, . . . Gv.I. algal, . . . TAM.
Pal, . . . . Mann. Puathakalu, . • TEL Tulisab ; Natal, MALAY.
The material of which European books are now made is paper. But the peoples of South-Eastern Asia still use largely the prepared leaf of the Palmyra palm tree, on which they write with an iron style. Also a thick paper board, blackened, is largely used by many as a book, on which they write with a soapstone pencil.
Eastern races give the term book-religions to the creeds of the Buddhists, Brahmans, Zoroas trians, Confucius, Lao-tze, Jesus Christ, and 3Iaho med. Mahomedans designate the Jews, the Christians, and their own sect, Ahl-i-Kitab, people of the book. The book-religions form three groups, corresponding to the race of the early worshippers. The first is the Aryan. It includes the religion of the Brahmans, professed by the mass of the people of India ; the religion of Zoroaster, a branch of the Vedic, preserved by the Parsecs, a remnant of the ancient Persian race now settled at Bombay ; and the religion of Buddha, a schism from the later Vedic. In the third century II.C., Buddhism became, under king Asoka, a state religion. Some centuries later it was rejected by the Hindus, and now there is scarcely a Buddhist in India ; while it has become a religion in China, Tibet, Siam, Japan, Burma, and Ceylon, and its members cannot comprise less than one-third of the human race.
The second group is formed by the three Semitic religions, Mosaism, with its two offshoots, Christianity and Islam. European Christianity is a resultant of Semitic and Indo-European religions. The .,hree Semitic religions claim a spiritual descent from their forefather Abraham. The third group contains the two Chinese religions of Kung Fu and Lao-tze. All book-religions, with the exception of Brahmanism, had a founder with a distinct personality. Zoroaster, Buddha, lAo-tze, Confucius, Jesus, and Mahomed lived noble lives, and left their words a rich legacy to man kind. None of them professed to found a new religion ; they all claimed to restore an original faith. Zoroaster spoke of the prophets who were before Such sayings of ancient times bast thou revealed, 0 Ahura? Buddha only claimed to be a link in the chain of wise men ; Confucius said that he was 'a transmitter, not a maker, believing in and loving the ancients;' IAo-tzo desired to revive the faith of the earliest and purest age ; Moses was ' educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians ;' Jesus assures us that he camp not to destroy but to fulfil ; ' Nfahorned Fol low the religion of Abraham ; hewas neither Jew nor Christian, but righteous, pious, and no idolater.'