Poésie Philosophique et Religieuse chez les Persans," and quoted the list of Sufi articles of belief there given by De Tassy. The fifth article is that there is no real distinction between good and evil. It is incorrect to call this an article of the Sufi creed. Speaking strictly it is only a consequence which logically follows from their doctrine of Unification (Tauḥīd), the ascription of all existence, all action, all events to the One First Cause. No sect, except possibly the Maulais, would admit such an article of faith. Men are hardly ever so bad (or so good) as their creeds seem to require. The first stage of the Sufi "Way" (Tariqat) was Shari'at, the strict observance of legal and moral obligations, and the next stage a long course of self-mortification, typified by the seven valleys of poverty, etc., described in the "Mantiq ut-Tair." In India the popular idea of a Șūfi is not a bold, bad man, regardless of right and wrong, but a meek and quiet spirit. In fact "Sufi Sahib" means much what "Quaker" meant to our ancestors. When Sir R. Burton wrote of the Sufi cult as a sort of Bacchanalian affair he was thinking of the Anacreontic effusions of Hafiz and other poets, who were not genuine Ṣūfīs at all, but merely played with Sufi ideas. Of course no one would deny that hypocrites always abounded, and probably now there is very little genuine religious fervour left among the most prominent Sufi orders. No one for instance who has seen the services of the Maulavis, the so-called "Dancing Dervishes," at Pera, can feel strongly persuaded of the sincerity of their religious feelings. But Dr. Wolff speaks highly of the Şufis of Bokhārā. Dr. Tholuck, in his "Blüthensammlung," finds a connection between Sufi doctrine and the aspect of Christianity presented by St. John, and even Dr. Pusey found much to admire in it. In article seven of his Sufi creed De Tassy speaks of Annihilation (Fana) as identical with Nirvana. This is misleading, because the Sufi doctrine was not Annihilation as the Be all and End all of their "Way," but Eternal abiding in God after annihilation (Baqa ba'd ul-fanā), a doctrine which I venture to think owed its parentage rather to Proclus and Plotinus than to Gautama Buddha. The eighth article of the Sufi creed, according to De Tassy, is Metempsychosis. I am very strongly of opinion that Metempsychosis in the ordinary acceptation of the term was not a doctrine generally held by the Sufis. What they held was a form of Aristotle's doctrine of the Soul, as set forth in his "De Anima." It was a doctrine similar to Milton's. "So from the root Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves To Intellectual, give both life and sense, -Paradise Lost, Book v. 479. See "Gulshan i Raz," the "Mystic Rose Garden" (text and translation published by Trübner, 1880), page 50. The same doctrine is set forth in the Masnavi of Jalāl ud-Din Rūmi (translation published by Trübner, 1887). "I died as inanimate matter and arose a plant, I died as a plant and arose again an animal, I died as an animal and arose a man. Why then should I fear to become less by dying? To rise an angel perfect from head to foot! I shall become what passes the conception of man! If this doctrine is to be called Metempsychosis at all it is certainly something quite different from Indian Metempsychosis. In fact Metempsychosis (Naskh or Tanāsukh) is denounced in the "Gulshan i Raz" (p. 10), and the "Commentator Lābijī" distinguishes it from the Sufi doctrine (p. 37, note 3). See also the "Dabistan" (translation by Shea and Troyer, 1843), Vol. III. page 277. As you remarked in the discussion, the history of Sufism has yet to be written. The best authority is, I think, the "Tazkirat ul Auliya" or "Memoirs of the Saints," by the author of the "Mantiq ut-Tair," supplemented by the "Lives of the Saints," by Jami, the introduction to which has been translated by De Sacy (Notices et Extraits des MSS, Vol. XII. page 426). There we find recorded the simple utterances of religious emotion of the early Saints, some of them women, and are constantly reminded of St. Theresa and Mme. Guyon. In the utterances of later Sufis we can trace, if I am not mistaken, Christian influences, and a constantly increasing infusion of neo-Platonist metaphysics as interpreted by the Moslem philosophers. At length in the "Gulshan i Raz" written in the beginning of the fourteenth century we have a full-blown "Gnosis" (Maʼrifat) or metaphysical theosophy.-Yours faithfully, E. H. WHINFIELD. 7. AN ANCIENT STONE IN CEYLON. DEAR SIR,-The photograph which I send you represents a so-called "Contemplation Stone" lying amid the ruins of Anuradhapura. I have seen a similar one at Alu Wihâra (the very ancient Wihara, where the Pitakas were first written down), on the summit of one of the huge boulders which help to form the temple. Others also have been found in Ceylon, though sometimes, it appears, with only If this doctrine is to be called Metempsychosis at all it is certainly something quite different from Indian Metempsychosis. In fact Metempsychosis (Naskh or Tanasukh) is denounced in the "Gulshan i Raz" (p. 10), and the "Commentator Lāhiji" distinguishes it from the Sufi doctrine (p. 37, note 3). See also the "Dabistān" (translation by Shea and Troyer, 1843), Vol. III. page 277. As you remarked in the discussion, the history of Sufism has yet to be written. The best authority is, I think, the "Tazkirat ul Auliya" or "Memoirs of the Saints," by the author of the "Mantiq ut-Tair," supplemented by the "Lives of the Saints," by Jami, the introduction to which has been translated by De Sacy (Notices et Extraits des MSS., Vol. XII. page 426). There we find recorded the simple utterances of religious emotion of the early Saints, some of them women, and are constantly reminded of St. Theresa and Mme. Guyon. In the utterances of later Sufis we can trace, if I am not mistaken, Christian influences, and a constantly increasing infusion of neo-Platonist metaphysics as interpreted by the Moslem philosophers. At length in the "Gulshan i Raz" written in the beginning of the fourteenth century we have a full-blown "Gnosis" (Maʼrifat) or metaphysical theosophy.-Yours faithfully, E. H. WHINfield. 7. AN ANCIENT STONE IN CEYLON. DEAR SIR,-The photograph which I send you represents a so-called "Contemplation Stone" lying amid the ruins of Anuradhapura. I have seen a similar one at Alu Wihâra (the very ancient Wihara, where the Pitakas were first written down), on the summit of one of the huge boulders which help to form the temple. Others also have been found in Ceylon, though sometimes, it appears, with only न |