Islam Rediscovered
24. A Case of Discovery*
~ 416 ~
works of Max Muller, with which I had been very
familiar for several years, had already taught me
how to study languages and religions from a
scientific standpoint. Renan only continued what
Max Muller had already begun, and I threw myself,
heart and soul, into the comparative study of all the
great religions of the world, to wit: Judaism,
Zoroastrianism and Brahaminism on the one hand,
and Buddhism, Christianity and Islam on the other.
Christianity for some time appeared to me as the
culminating point and the true reconciliation of the
Semitic and the Aryan; and I might have become a
convert to Roman Catholicism some years ago but
for
the
dogmas
of
papal
infallibility,
transubstantiation and so on, which my German
university education had rendered untenable.
Nevertheless, I was greatly impressed by Roman
Catholicism on its artistic and archaeological side
and I am still of the opinion, that there is no form of
Christianity that affords greater consolation or
offers a surer haven to a weary soul tossed for years
on the tempestuous seas of modern scepticism, than
the Church dedicated to St. Peter in Rome. In this
frame of mind I returned to India, and was soon
confronted with Theosophy as one of the leading
