BUDDHISM, AND " THE LIGHT OF ASIA/' 179 



oi the country and the religion of the people. I had not been in 

 China, but I had read something of the Buddhism there, and in 

 Ceylon, and my experience and knowledge of it led me to perceive 

 nothing in it but darkness of the grossest kind, and I thought it gross 

 presumption on the part of any man to put forward as The Light 

 of Asia that which has added to the darkness of that great 

 country. I thought to myself, here is a false prophet. He may 

 charm ever so wisely ; but he is a false prophet, and it is to the 

 charm of such poetry that we owe so much of this wretched Budd- 

 hism in this country. I thought if people who praise it up here 

 spent six months in Burmah and saw the practical evidence there 

 of the fruits of that religion, they would never for a moment 

 entertain the nonsense they now do about this Buddhism. Sirs 

 and ladies, I venture to ask you if any people on the face of the 

 earth seem to be more utterly indifferent to the shedding of blood 

 and to human suffering than the followers of Buddhism. At the 

 same time, with all this wretched, horrible disregard for human 

 suffering and human life, they show the greatest care for animal 

 life. Some will not even drink a glass of water for fear of the 

 microbes it contains, or kill a flea, be it ever so troublesome. 

 These contradictions are parts of the darkness proceeding out of 

 The Light of A^ia, which we are asked to accept in preference to 

 The Light of the World. (Applause.) 



The Author. — Really all I can do is to thank those who have 

 kindly spoken. 



I thank Dr. Pope very much for his interesting appendix to the 

 paper. I wish I could have added a great deal more ; but, of course, 

 one can only go a very short way into such a subject in a paper, 

 and my paper is very long as it is. 



I think it is true that Buddhism was driven out of India by 

 argument, in point of fact by the common sense of the people; and 

 it is very interesting to know that at that time Buddhists were 

 accused of not believing in the soul ; but I cannot think that that 

 was the doctrine of Buddha himself. It may have been so, and 

 that is a very important matter, perhaps, for investigation. The 

 later doctrines of the Buddhist books, are claimed as being intro- 

 duced into the world by Buddha himself, of whom we are told he 

 became the great Saviour of mankind by teaching these things ! 

 They may not all, however, have been in the original teachings of 

 Buddha himself, but may have grown up in the development of 



