and you become god-like. The soul strives, with divine aid, to "purify
itself even as God is pure." But apply the principle to Hinduism. Alas!
the Pantheon is almost a pandemonium. Krishna, who in these days is the
chief deity to at least a hundred millions of people, does not possess
one elevated attribute. If, in the circumstances, society does not
become a moral pesthouse it is only because the people continue better
than their religion. The human heart, though fallen, is not fiendish. It
has still its purer instincts; and, when the legends about abominable
gods and goddesses are falling like mildew, these are still to some
extent kept alive by the sweet influences of earth and sky and by the
charities of family life. When the heart of woman is about to be swept
into the abyss her infant's smile restores her to her better self. Thus
family life does not go to ruin; and so long as that anchor holds
society will not drift on the rocks that stand so perilously near.
Still, the state of things is deplorably distressing.

[Sidenote: The doctrine of incarnation.]
The doctrine of the incarnation is of fundamental importance in
Christianity. It seems almost profanation to compare it with the Hindu
teaching regarding the Avataras, or descents of Vishnu. It is difficult
to extract any meaning out of the three first manifestations, when the
god became in succession a fish, a boar, and a tortoise. Of the great
"descents" in Rama and Krishna we have already spoken. The ninth Avatara
was that of Buddha, in which the deity descended for the purpose of
deceiving men, making them deny the gods, and leading them to
destruction. So blasphemous an idea may seem hardly possible, even for
the bewildered mind of India; but this is doubtless the Brahmanical
explanation of the rise and progress of Buddhism. It was fatal error,
but inculcated by a divine being. Even the sickening tales of Krishna
and his amours are less shocking than this. When we turn from such