CHAP. I.]

ANCIENT PESSIMISM.

21

hauer in the light which comparison gives. To do this we must make a long journey, from the banks of the Spree to the banks of the Ganges, from the nineteenth century of the Christian era to the dim antiquity of an uncertain century before Christ. The only true counterpart of modern "reasoned pessimism," (to use Mr. Sully's happy phrase) which the world's history offers, is, I think, to be found in the doctrine of Gotama. I do not forget, indeed, the striking points of similarity afforded by Manicheism, both as to its theoretical positions and its practical results: its attribution of the material universe to an evil principle, its proscription of matrimony as the means of perpetuating the evil, and the unspeakable impurities which were the issue of that proscription. But it is to

1 A good deal of information upon this subject will be found in St. Augustine: see especially Contra Secundum, c. 21. St. Leo bears similar testimony. Of the practical results of Schopenhauerism M. Caro gives the following account: "On dit que dans l'Allemagne, et particulièrement à Berlin, il existe, à l'heure qu'il est, une sorte de secte Schopenhauériste, qui travaille activement à la propagande de ces idées et qui se reconnaît à certains rites, à certaines formules, quelque chose comme une franc-maçonnerie vouée par des serments et des pratiques secrètes à la destruction de l'amour, de ses illusions et de ses œuvres. On nous assure que la secte publie des brochures mystérieuses, pleines d'informations et d'instructions du plus haut intérêt au point de vue de la pathologie morale, mais de l'effet le plus bizarre sur les lecteurs qui ne sont pas initiés. L'apostolat, évidemment dévié, de quelques prosélytes va jusqu'à un degré de folie devant lequel la plume et la penscé s'arrêtent. Quand la théorie d'une chasteté de ce genre, toute

Buddhism that we must go for the true original of Schopenhauer's doctrine, and therefore it is worth while to consider a little the history and teaching of the Light of Asia.

Regarding the life and legend of Buddha Gotama, indeed, few words must suffice here, for that is not my present subject, and I shall have to touch upon it in another chapter of this volume.' A most beautiful and touching and fascinating story it is, and those who would rightly appreciate it should read it at large, in Bishop Bigandet's invaluable pages, or in the fine poem in which it is enshrined by Mr. Edwin Arnold. It is diffi cult to understand how any one can rise from the perusal of those works without the profoundest veneration for the moral and spiritual greatness of him who is their subject; whose religion has for twenty-five centuries been the stay in life and the hope in death of a greater number of human hearts than any other mode of faith, and to whom four hundred and fifty millions of our race still turn with the disinterestedness of pure affection as the highest and noblest ideal of which they have knowledge. No amount of prejudice

négative, se produit dans des esprits et des cours qui ne sont pas chastes, en vue de fins chimériques, comme la destruction du monde, elle aboutit dans la pratique à un système de compensations que ne sont pas autre chose que des dérèglements sans nom."-Le Pessimisme, p. 245.

CHAP. I.]

GOTAMA'S LIFE.

23

appears to have been able to dim the lustre of his personality, to obscure the sweetness and winningness of his character. Even in the full middle ages we find Marco Polo writing, "Had he been a Christian he would have been a great saint of our Lord Jesus Christ, so holy and pure was the life he led"; while in our own day the chief professed opponents of his system, whether Catholic or Anglican prelates, Wesleyan or Baptist missionaries, agree in the judgment of M. Barthélemy SaintHilaire, one of its severest and least fair criticsthat "with the sole exception of the Christ there is no more touching figure than his among the founders of religions," so entirely is he "without spot and blemish," ""the finished model of the heroism, the self-renunciation, the love, the sweetness, he commands." Nor, however doubtful many details of his life may be, is there any reasonable room for scepticism as to its main outlines. We know that, of royal lineage and the heir to a throne, he gave up father and wife and child to become a religious mendicant, and that years of heroic mortification and fierce interior trial culminated in that great night under the Bo-tree, upon the bank of the Neranjarā, when, as the Buddhist author expresses it, "he attained supreme enlightenment," and "alone worked out the salvation of the three worlds, and overthrew the whole army of the Prince of Evil." We know how he then entered upon his high task to preach the gospel of pity, to found a kingdom of

affection as the highest and noblest ideal of witch they have knoge. No amount of prejudice

négative, se prody

chastes, en ve

elle abi da

rave die

sont

Seements

mism

1

CHAP. I.]

GOTAMA'S LIFE.

23

appears to have been able to dim the lustre of his personality, to obscure the sweetness and winningness of his character. Even in the full middle ages we find Marco Polo writing, "Had he been a Christian he would have been a great saint of our Lord Jesus Christ, so holy and pure was the life he led"; while in our own day the chief professed opponents of his system, whether Catholic or Anglican prelates, Wesleyan or Baptist missionaries, agree in the judgment of M. Barthélemy SaintHilaire, one of its severest and least fair criticsthat "with the sole exception of the Christ there is no more touching figure than his among the founders of religions," so entirely is he "without spot and blemish," "the finished model of the heroism, the self-renunciation, the love, the sweetness, he commands." Nor, however doubtful many details of his life may be, is there any reasonable room for scepticism as to its main outlines. We know that, of royal lineage and the heir to a throne, he gave up father and wife and child to become a religious mendicant, and that years of heroic mortification and fierce interior trial culminated in that great night under the Bo-tree, upon the bank of the Neranjara, when, as the Buddhist author expresses it, "he attained supreme enlightenment," and "alone

the salvation of the three worlds, and e whole army of the Prince of Evil." he then entered upon his high task ospel of pity, to found a kingdom of