526 BUDDHISM AND DEMON-WORSHIP. [PART IV. 



temporary with the early development of the arts amongst 

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

 anterior to the era of Christianity. 1 Buddhism exerted a 

 salutary influence over the tribes of Thibet ; through them 

 it became instrumental 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 literature 2 ; 

 and whatever of authentic history we possess in relation 

 to these countries we owe to the influence of their generic 

 religion. Nor are its effects limited to these objects : 

 much of what is vigorous in the character of its northern 

 converts may be traced in the development of their habits 

 to the operation of its principles, which, unlike those 

 of the unwarlike Singhalese, rejected sloth and effemi- 

 nacy to aim at conquest and power. Looking to the 

 self-reliance which Buddhism inculcates, 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, owing more or less to insulation and 

 seclusion, Buddhism 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 influence. In this respect the Singhalese 

 are the living mummies of past ages ; and realise in their 

 immovable characteristics the Eastern fable of the city 

 whose 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 the 



1 MAX MTJLLER, Hist. Sanskrit 

 Literature, p. 264 



sur le Pali, ou Langue Sacree de la 



See BTTRNOUF et LASSEN, JEssai I &c. 



Presqu'ile au-dda du Ganye, ch. i., 



