( Ixxvii ) 



APPENDIX, No. V. 



AMENDED NOTES to Mr. Hodgson's " Sketch of Buddhism."* 



The following Memorandum was received from Mr. Hodgson, subsequently to 

 the publication of his " Sketch of Buddhism," in the first part of this volume, and 

 of course, too late to make the alterations he wished in the Notes appended to that 

 Paper. The Council, however, have considered it but just to Mr, Hodgson 

 himself, as well as due to the Public, that all the information they possess upon this 

 abstruse point should be submitted in its most perfect form, and have accordingly 

 directed the publication of this Paper in the Appendix to the Volume. It may be 

 added, that in a Letter accompanying the present Memorandum, Mr. Hodgson refers 

 those who feel a desire to become better acquainted with the Metaphysics and Mys- 

 ticism of the Bavddha Philosophy and Religion, to a Paper upon that subject, in the 

 sixteenth volume of the Bengal Asiatic Researches, which he considers the more 

 perfect result of his labours in that particular branch of Oriental science. 



I should recommend it to those who would read the following paper with advantage, 

 first to cast an eye over the faint outline of Sauffata philosophy, which I have attempted 

 to delineate in the sixteenth volume of the Bengal Asiatic Society's Transactions, 

 pp. 435-440, 



The religious system of the Buddhas is founded upon abstruse philosophical specula- 

 tions, embracing very different notions respecting mind and matter — a first cause — and 

 the nature and destiny of the human soul ; and, whatever may be the case with regard 

 to Brahmanism, it is certainly true of Buddhism that its philosophy is inseparably 

 blended with its religion. 



Further, though Buddhism, considered as a system of religion, was originally charac- 

 terised by a great degree of simplicity, there can, I think, be no doubt that that sim- 

 plicity was early abandoned, when Buddhism came to be generally diffused among the 

 multitude. 



A system inculcating the severest mental abstraction and physical privations (to say 

 nothing of its speculative atheistical tendency) was not calculated for popular use ; and it 

 may be safely assumed that the same age which beheld Buddhism exalted to a public 

 faith, saw it also materially modified in its essential characteristics. But at what precise 



• For the Sketch of Buddhism, see pp. 223-257 of this volume. 



