RELIGION. Of the various religious in the world, according to Hamel, there are, in mil lions, Christians, 120 ; Jews, nearly 4 ; If Awn madans, 250 ; Hindus, 111 ; Buddhists, 315. Every religion it has been remarked, 'even the most imperfect' and degraded, has something that ought to be sacred to us, for there is in all religions a secret yearning after the true though unknown God.' 3fovers has illustrated the re ligious worship of Phcenicians and Carthaginians, from their temples ; the religious idea of the Aral) nomades, prior to the time of Mahomed, has been described by many ; the idols and temples, the hieroglyphic inscnptions, the hieratic and demotic mss., have afforded much information regarding the religion of Egypt. Further to the cast, the monuments of Babylon and Nineveh have furnished materials for the study of the Semitic religions, and images of Bel and Nisroch have been prodnced, and something is now known of the religions of 3fexico and Peru, and of the savage inhabitants of America, Africa, and Poly nesia.
Of the religions of the S. and E. of Asia and the philosophies which take their place, the demon, and spirit, and nature worship of the ruder races is perhaps the most ancient ; the monotheistic religion of the Jews, 4000 years old, may be the next, followed by the Buddhist philosophy, which seems to have been believed in since 3200 years, 850 years before Sakya gave it fresh vigour, and is the most extensive of all of them, with the Jaina faith, which is as old as that of the Buddhist.
The philosophy put forth by Kung-fu-tze or Confucius, was about 500 years before Christ, and it has been added to and altered by subse quent sages of China. The Christian religion, first established in 1Vestern Asia 19 centuries ago, and early taught in Africa, Arabia, and Central and Eastern Asia, has at present, in British India, but a comparatively small number of professors If India and South-Eastern Asia be looked at in their religious aspects, four polytheist faiths will be seen,—Buddhistn, the Jaina faith, Brnhinanistn, and Shamanism; three monotheistic faiths, viz. Jewish, Christian, and Muhammadan ; mixed faith, the Sikh, partly monotheistic, but belieting in incarnations; and lastly the worship of fire as an element, by the little numerous but intellectual Parsees.
The canonical books of three of the principal religions of the ancient aud uicalern world, viz.
the Veda of the Brahman, the Zendavesta of the Zoroastrian, and the Tripitaka of the Buddhist, have disclosed the real origin of Greek and Roman, and likewise of Teutonic, Slavonic, and Celtic mythology. The Koran, and the literature connected with it, affonl information regarding a Semitic religion, the doctrines of Mahorned.
Besides the Aryan and Semitic families of reli ion there are in China three recognised forms g of public worship,—the philosophy of Confucius, that of Tao-tze, and the religion or philosophy of Fo (Buddha).
' The ancient history of India shows that it has had four great religious eras, — the Vedic, in which Agni, Indra, and other personifications of spiritual existences, with the worship of astral and natural phenomena, were propitiated with feasts, and invoked with the hymns of the Rig Veda, and in which maidens selected their husbands in the Swayamvara, and monarchs sacri ficed the horse in the Aswa Medha. In the Brah manic period, the Kshatriya feasts were converted into sacrifices for the atonement of sins against Brahmanical law, and divine worship was reduced to a system of austerities and meditations upon the Supreme Spirit as Brahma. It was in this era that the Brahmans assumed the character of a great ecclesiastical hierarchy, and established that priestly dominion which still extends over the minds and senses of the Hindus of India ; 3dly, the Buddhist period, in which Sakya Muni appeared. And, 4thly, the Brahmanical revival, during which Brahmans abandoned the worship of their god Brahma, and reverted to the old national gods and heroes of the Vedic Aryans. In this era Vishnu came to be regarded as the Supreme Being, and Rama and Kiishna as his incarnations, and it was accompanied and followed by a belief in a deity called Siva, whose worship, based on physiological doctrines, was earnestly inculcated by its missionaries during the 8th to the 14th century of the Christian era. Both of these sects of Brahmanism are accepted by the Hindus. But at present the largest number of the Hindus are followers of Vishnu and his wife, in some one of his several incarnations ; a smaller number accepting Siva and his wife. Siva is mentioned in the book of Amos (v. 26), but when his worship was first introduced into India has not been traced. Tod supposes ac. 900.