CHAP. XI.] REWAKDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 533 



higher authority; and hence forgiveness or atonement 

 are ideas utterly unknown in the despotic dogmas of 

 Buddha. 



Allusion has already been made to the subtleties enter- 

 tained by the priesthood, in connexion with the doctrine 

 of the metempsychosis, as developed in their sacred 

 books; but the exposition would be tedious to show the 

 distinctions between their theories, and the opinions of 

 transmigration entertained by the mass of the Singhalese 

 Buddhists. The rewards of virtue and the punishment 

 of vice are supposed to be equally attainable in this 

 world; and according to the amount of either, which 

 characterizes the conduct of an individual in one stage 

 of being, will be the elevation or degradation into which 

 he will be hereafter born. 



Thus punishment and reward become equally fixed 

 and inevitable : but retribution may be deferred by the 

 intermediate exhibition of virtue, and an offering or 

 prostration to Buddha, or an aspiration of faith in his 

 name, will suffice to ward off punishment for a tune, and 

 even to produce happiness in an intermediate birth. Hence 

 the most flagitious offender, by an act of reverence in 

 dying, may postpone indefinitely the evil consequence of 

 his crimes, and hence the indifference and apparent 

 apathy which is a remarkable characteristic of the 

 Singhalese who suffer death for their offences. 1 



To mankind in general Buddha came only as an ad- 

 viser and a friend; but, as regards his own priesthood, 

 he assumes all the authority of a lawgiver and chief. 

 Spurning the desires and vanities of the world, he 

 taught them to aspire to no other reward for their 

 labours, than the veneration of the human race, as 

 teachers of knowledge and examples of benevolence. 

 Taking the abstract idea of perfect intelligence and 



Et vos barbaricos ritus, moremqtie sinistrum 

 Sacrorum Druidae positis repetlstis ab armis. 

 Solis nosse deos. et coeli numina vobis 

 Aut solis nescire datum: nemora alta rcmoti 

 Incnlitis lucis : vobis nuctorihus umbra; 



tticitas Ercbi scdes Uilisqtic ]' J'ttmli 



artus 



PaUida regna pelunt: regit idem $piritnt 

 Orbe olio : lonftc (si canitis cognita] vitas 



redia <-st. Certepopul' quoi despicitArctos 

 errare suo, quos ille timorum 



, 

 Maximus fraud vrget leli metus, el 



1. 1 CAN, 1. i. 450etscq. 



M M 3 



