immoral
doctrine
was to
withdraw
the
devotee
more and
more from
the public
service,
to
concentrate
his
thoughts
on his own
spiritual
emotions,
and to
breed in
him a
contempt
for the
present
life which
he
regarded
merely as
a
probation
for a
better and
an
eternal.
The saint
and the
recluse,
disdainful
of earth
and rapt
in
ecstatic
contemplation
of heaven,
became in
popular
opinion
the
highest
ideal of
humanity,
