THE BUDDHISTS "NIRVANA." 177 



the meanest life, also falsehood, intemperance, dis- 

 honesty, anger, pride, and covetousness ; he preached 

 the doctrine of endless series of transmigrations, or 

 eternal existence of matter alone, possessing power of 

 reproduction without any other agency. His disciples, 

 therefore, are essentially Atheists, like those of Con- 

 fucius, acknowledging no Supreme Being. Hence 

 the effigy of Buddha is regarded as a type of earthly 

 goodness, wisdom, and beauty, for he himself was the 

 perfection of an ascetic ; he had passed through 

 millions of existences, and had ultimately attained the 

 subhme excellency of Nirvana — that is, that state of 

 blissful unconsciousness, akin to final cessation of exist- 

 ence, the consummation of eternal felicity, " a peace that 

 passes all understanding," which is every Buddhist's 

 aim and ambition. " Life will condense," says a 

 learned Singhalese priest, " by means of death into its 

 essence." 



Nirvana therein difPers from the Hindu absorption 

 of the spirit into the supreme divinity of Brahm, whilst 

 the leading feature of the third of the chief religions of 

 the East, namely, Mahomedanism, is admission to a 

 material paradise. 



" Till all the sum of ended life — 

 The ' Karma ' — all that total of a soul 

 Which is the things it did, the thoughts it had, 



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