538 BUDDHISM AND DEMON-WORSHIP. [PART IV. 



and virtue, so far from being apparent as the rule, are 

 barely discernible as the exception. Neither hopes nor 

 apprehensions have proved a sufficient restraint on the 

 habitual violation of all those precepts of charity and 

 honesty, of purity and truth, which form the very essence 

 of the doctrine ; and in proportion as its tenets have been 

 slighted by the people, are its priesthood disregarded, and 

 its temples neglected. 



No national system of religion, no prevailing super- 

 stition that has ever fallen under my observation presents 

 so dull a level, and is so pre-eminently deficient in popular 

 influences, as Buddhism amongst the Singhalese. It has 

 its multitude of followers, but it is a misnomer to describe 

 them as its votaries, for the term implies a warmth and 

 fervour unknown to a native of Ceylon. He believes, 

 or he thinks he believes, because he is of the same 

 faith with his ancestors ; but he looks on the religious 

 doctrines of the various sects which surround him with a 

 stolid indifference which is the surest indication of the little 

 importance which he attaches to his own. The fervid 

 earnestness of Christianity, even in its most degenerate 

 forms, the fanatical enthusiasm of Islam, the haughty ex- 

 clusiveness of Brahma, and even the zealous warmth of 

 other Northern faiths, are all emotions utterly foreign and 

 unknown to the followers of Buddha in Ceylon. 



Yet, strange to say, under the coldness of this barren 

 system, there burn below the unextinguished fires of 

 another and a darker superstition, whose flames overtop 

 the icy summits of the Buddhist philosophy, and excite a 

 deeper and more reverential awe in the imagination of the 

 Singhalese. As the Hindus in process of time superadded 

 to their exalted conceptions of Brahma, and the benevolent 

 attributes of Vishnu, those dismal dreams and apprehen- 

 sions which embody themselves in the horrid worship of 

 Shiva, and in invocations to propitiate the destroyer ; so 

 the followers of Buddha, unsatisfied with the vain preten- 

 sions of unattainable perfection, struck down by their in- 

 ternal consciousness of sin and insufficiency, and seeing 



