In all religions this unavoidable debasement has taken place.

The Roman Catholic who prays to a wooden image of Christ is not one whit less idolatrous than the Buddhist who worships a bronze statue of Amida Butzu.

All that the common people are capable of seeing is the soul-envelope, for the soul itself they are unable to appreciate.
Spiritually they are undiscerning, because imaginatively they are blind.
Now the grosser soul-envelopes of the two great European and Asiatic faiths, though differing in detail, are in general parallel in structure.

Each boasts its full complement of saints, whose congruent catalogues are equally wearisome in length.

Each tells its circle of beads to help it keep count of similarly endless prayers.