168 THE REV. R. COLLINS, ON 



teaching was probably only afterwards philosophised into 

 something that destroyed another supposed cause of the 

 changes from one state of existence to another, held by the 

 believers in metempsychosis, a cause which they called 

 Kamma, or Karma, which is merely an abstract idea of the 

 effects of merit and demerit. 



In short, Buddha taught only the value of perfection in the 

 moral life, which, however good in itself, is in truth always 

 non-existent, except under a power higher than man's ; a 

 fact that the earlier Brahman Avriters admitted. There being 

 no revelation of such power in Buddhism, it cannot be with 

 justice ranked as a religion. Therefore Buddhism has but 

 little interest for the student of what has been called the 

 Science of Religion, since it contains nothing of what is the 

 essence of a religion, namely, an acknowledgment of a power 

 above man's. Buddhism is founded upon a mere wreck of a 

 traditional religion, that side only of religion which prescribes 

 correct conduct. 



In this view of Buddha's teaching, the efforts of some 

 German writers to trace parallels between the histories of 

 Buddha and of Jesus Christ are futile : for this reason, many 

 of the legends of Buddha's life have entered the Buddhist 

 accounts we know not how or Avhen. We can only trace 

 up to Buddha those methods on which he taught his band of 

 ascetics after he himself had become an ascetic. He claims to 

 have reached his conclusions himself. He certainly claims no 

 divine power. The various legends of his divine birth; the 

 adoration of Asita (of which there are several different 

 versions) ; the temptation by Mara ; the homage paid to him by 

 various divine beings; his miracles; are entirely inconsistent 

 with the real history of Buddha himself. They appear only, 

 for the most part, in later books, some of them Avritten probably 

 hundreds of years after his death. The incidents in the life 

 of Jesus Christ, on the contrary, are contained in accounts, 

 of the historical character of which we have the most conclu- 

 sive evidence. If we are to compare Buddhism with Chris- 

 tianity, so as to do justice to both, we must take only the 

 undoubted teachings of Buddha, and the undoubted teach- 

 ings of Jesus Christ — only thus will our conclusions be of 

 any value. The legendary accounts of what may be called 

 the superhuman side of Buddha's history, which have been 

 at such length compared by Seydel and others with the facts 

 of the life of Christ, cannot be shown to be necessary parts 

 of the actual history of Buddha's mission. 



