526 BUDDHISM AXD DEMON-WOESHIP. [Part IV. 



temporary with tlie early development of tlie arts amongst 

 tliis remarkable people, at a period coeval, if not anterior, 

 to the era of Christianity.^ Buddhism exerted a salutary 

 mfluence over the tribes of Thibet ; through them it be- 

 came mstrumental in humanising the Moguls ; and it 

 more or less led to the cessation of the devastating in- 

 cursions by which the hordes of the East were precipitated 

 over the Western Empire in the early ages of Christianity. 

 The Singhalese, and the nations of further Asia, are 

 indebted to Buddhism for an alphabet and a hterature ^ ; 

 and whatever of authentic history w^e possess in relation 

 to these countries we owe to the influence of their generic 

 rehgion. JSTor are its effects limited to these objects : 

 much of what is vigorous in the character of its northern 

 converts may be traced to the operation of its principles, 

 in the development of their pecuhar idiosyncrasy, which, 

 unhke that of the unwarlike Singhalese, rejected sloth and 

 effeminacy to aim at conquest and power. Looking to 

 the self-rehance which Buddhism incidcates, the exaltation 

 of intellect which it proclaims, and the perfection of virtue 

 and wisdom to which it points as within the reach of 

 every created being, it may readily be imagined, that it 

 must have wielded a spell of unusual potency, and one 

 well calculated to awaken boldness and energy in those 

 already animated by schemes of ambition. In Ceylon, 

 on the contrary, owning more or less to insulation and 

 seclusion, Buddliism has survived for upwards of 2000 

 years as unchanged in all its leading characteristics as 

 the genius of the people has remained torpid and inani- 

 mate under its mfluence. In this respect the Singhalese 

 are the hving mummies of past ages ; and reahse in their 

 immovable characteristics the Eastern fable of the city 

 whc>se inhabitants were perpetuated in marble. If change 

 has in any degree supervened, it has been from the cor- 

 ruption of the practice, not from any abandonment of tlie 



^ Max MiJLLEE^ Hist. Sanskrit j sw le Pali, ou Langue Sacree de la 

 Literature, p. 264. | PresqiCile au-dela (hi Gauge, ch. i., 



^ See BcENorF et Lassex^ Essai ' &c. 



