Book 4 (Part I)

7 Christ had not been to China and married the Emperor’s daughter. Mohammed had not been acquiring wealth and drilling soldiers. Buddha had not been consolidating any religious organizations. St. Paul had not been intriguing with an ambitious general. Each came back poor; each came back alone. What was the nature of their power? What happened to them in their absence? History will not help us to solve the problem, for history is silent. We have only the accounts given by the men themselves. It would be very remarkable should we find that these accounts agree. Of the great teachers we have mentioned Christ is silent; the other four tell us something; some more, some less. Buddha goes into details too elaborate to enter upon in this place; but the gist of it is that in one way or another he got hold of the secret force of the World and mastered it. Of St. Paul’s experiences, we have nothing but a casual illusion to his having been “caught up into Heaven, and seen and heard things of which it was not lawful to speak.” Mohammed speaks crudely of his having been “visited by the Angel Gabriel,” who communicated things from “God.” Moses says that he “beheld God.” ᾽