Excerpt from Vestiges of the Spirit-History of Man From the earliest times, among all nations, man has sought to recognize his God; to define that inscrutable Providence which rules the world. Like the successive changes of the forests, the infinite variety of the harvests, the differing notes of the birds, the opposite languages of men, the varied fragrance of the flowers, such is the contrast of religious belief which man's spirit brings, as its first fruits, to its Creator. From Constantinople to the shores of India, China, and Japan, four great world-religions meet in conflict. Each asserts its claims to be regarded as the civilized and saving religion of mankind. Brahmanism has an antiquity of more than three thousand years. Buddhism of twenty-three hundred, the Christian religion of eighteen centuries, the Mahometan of twelve. The number of Christians is perhaps two hundred and fifty millions; that of the Mahometans, Brahmans, and Buddhists united, may be set down as not far from eight hundred millions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.