215 



we should have had a very curious Christianity in China. So it is with the 

 Buddhists and other Gentile nations who might have been like some 

 Christians and Jews who have corrupted the worship of the true God, and 

 followed their own devices. 



Rev. S. Coles, M .A. — I have to thank Mr. Collins for his very able paper 

 on a subject in which I feel the greatest interest. I may say that I have 

 been a missionary in Ceylon for about four-and-twenty years, and during 

 that time I made the Buddhist system of religion a special study, and 

 am of opinion that, in order to understand Buddhism aright, we must 

 endeavour to find out what was the state of society at the time and in the 

 country in which Buddha lived, and what were the influences brought to 

 bear on Buddhism from Avithout. We understand, from the Buddhist 

 books, that in the time of Buddha, society in India was pantheistic, and 

 that caste during that period had so developed, especially in relation to the 

 pretensions of the Brahmins, as to become absolutely unbearable to the 

 soldiers and the kings. Buddhism, then, was evidently formulated or 

 founded in order to correct these things ; and Buddha, like most human 

 reformers, when he set to work with the object of reforming pantheism, did 

 this so effectually that he left no room for a deity in the religion he set up ; 

 and, instead of a deity, we find action in the abstract. Buddha was what 

 may be called the king of pessimists. He looked upon all existence, all 

 pleasure, and all human happiness as evil and undesirable, himself giving 

 up, as we are told, the pleasures of the court and retiring into the jungle, 

 whence, after seven years of meditation, he came forth as a teapher. He then 

 said he would give only his own experience ; that what he had learned he 

 had learned by himself, that he had not derived it from any one else. 

 This is repeatedly expressed in the Buddhist writings, which affirm that 

 he had never received any of his teachings from any other source. If, how- 

 ever, we look at those teachings as they are given in his moral code, I do not 

 think we need go very far to find their origin ; for the first five of his com- 

 mands are those which, we may say, are the common heritage of humanity. 

 All races of people look on murder, theft, impurity, and Msehood as sins 

 and actions that should be avoided. The other commands given in 

 Buddha's code are such as we should expect a pessimist to put forward. 

 They relate to abstinence from all pleasure ; and this last portion of his 

 commands was to be observed principally by the monks and nuns. Laymen 

 might observe them if they chose, but they were not bound to do so. Then, 

 as I have said, we must look to the connexion India had with other 

 countries. Mr. Eassam has spoken of what has been discovered in Assyria ; 

 and here we should bear in mind that the Ten Tribes were carried into 

 Assyria long before — quite a century before — Buddha was born. I think the 

 Behestun inscriptions prove that the teachings of the Bible, or of the Old 

 Testament, were carried to that part of the world ; and in the Buddhist 

 scriptures we find so many interesting facts and remarks similar to those 



VOL. XVIH. Q 



