manifested that gives life to all that exists, and that this
spiritual element strives to unite with everything of a like
nature to itself, and attains this aim through love. This
thought appeared in most various forms at different times and
places, with varying completeness and clarity. It found
expression in Brahmanism, Judaism, Mazdaism (the teachings of
Zoroaster), in Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and in the
writings of the Greek and Roman sages, as well as in Christianity
and Mohammedanism. The mere fact that this thought has sprung up
among different nations and at different times indicates that it
is inherent in human nature and contains the truth. But this
truth was made known to people who considered that a community
could only be kept together if some of them restrained others,
and so it appeared quite irreconcilable with the existing order
of society. Moreover it was at first expressed only
fragmentarily, and so obscurely that though people admitted its
theoretic truth they could not entirely accept it as guidance for
their conduct. Then, too, the dissemination of the truth in a
society based on coercion was always hindered in one and the same
manner, namely, those in power, feeling that the recognition of
this truth would undermine their position, consciously or
sometimes unconsciously perverted it by explanations and
additions quite foreign to it, and also opposed it by open
violence. Thus the truth--that his life should be directed by
the spiritual element which is its basis, which manifests itself
as love, and which is so natural to man--this truth, in order to
force a way to man's consciousness, had to struggle not merely
against the obscurity with which it was expressed and the
intentional and unintentional distortions surrounding it, but
also against deliberate violence, which by means of persecutions