life.[1] It is, doubtless, from one of the popular Russian versions that Count Tolstoi has obtained his knowledge of the Barlaam of which he gives evidence in his Confessions.
The œcumenical spread of the Barlaam Literature, which I have now sufficiently indicated by this summary of the bibliography of the book—though this has, of course, to be supplemented by the evidence of the separate spread of the Parables—is sufficient proof of the attractiveness both of Legend and Parables to the mediæval mind of Europe. When we ask what is the charm which attracted mediæval Christendom to what is, after all, only a version of the life and parables of Buddha, the answer is not far to seek. The world has known, up till now, four great systems of Religion: Paganism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Culture, of which last Goethe may be described as the High Priest. Paganism in its various forms may be most simply described as the Worship of the Social Bond. All the other three religions have for their main object the salvation of the individual. And all three are at one as
- ↑ Cf. Castor, Lit. Pop. Rom., pp. 46-53; and Kuhn's References, p. 53.
