42 SIR MONIER MONIER-WILLIAMS. 
setting free its teeming population, before entangled in the meshes 
of ceremonial observances and Brahmanical priesteraft.’ Yes, I 
admit this; nay, I admit even more than this. I admit that 
Buddhism conferred many other benefits on the millions inhabiting 
the most populous part of Asia. It promoted progress up toa 
certain point; it preached purity in thought, word, and deed 
(though only for the accumulation of merit); it proclaimed the 
brotherhood of humanity ; it avowed sympathy with social liberty 
and freedom ; it gave back much independence to women ; it incul- 
cated universal benevolence, extending even to animals ; and, from 
its declaration that a man’s future depended on his present acts and 
conditions, it did good service for a time in preventing stagnation, 
promoting activity, and elevating the character of humanity. 
But if, after making all these concessions, I am told that, on my 
own showing, Buddhism was a kind of introduction to Christianity, or 
that Christianity is a kind of development of Buddhism, I must ask 
you to bear with me a little longer while I point out certain other 
contrasts, which ought to make it clear to every reasonable man 
how vast, how profound, how impassable is the gulf separating the 
true religion from a mere system of morality, founded on a form of 
pessimistic philosophy. And, first of all, let us note that Christ 
was God-sent, whereas Buddha was self-sent. Christ was with 
His Father from everlasting, and was in the fulness of time sent by 
Him into the world to be born of a pure virgin, in the likeness and 
fashion of men. Buddha, on the contrary, by a force derived from 
his own acts, passed through innumerable bodies of gods, demi-gods, 
demons, men, and animals, until he reached one out of numerous 
supposed heavens, and thence by his own will descended upon 
earth, to enter the side of his mother, in the form of a white 
elephant. Then Christ came down from heaven to be born on 
earth in a poor and humble station, to be reared in a cottage, to be 
trained to toilsome labour as a working man. Buddha came down 
to be born on earth in a rich and princely family ; to be brought 
up amid luxurious surroundings, and finally to go forth as a 
mendicant, begging his own food and doing nothing for his own 
support. Then, again, Christ as He grew up, showed no signs: of 
earthly majesty in His external form, whereas the Buddha is 
described as marked with certain mystic symbols of universal 
monarchy on his feet and on his hands, and taller and more stately 
in frame and figure than ordinary human beings. Then, when each 
entered on his ministry as a teacher, Christ was despised and 
