BUDDHISM, AND "THE LIGHT OF ASIA." 181 



If Buddhism can be said to be a religion at all, it is practically a 

 dead one. Nothing would have astonished or disgusted the founder 

 more than to find himself adored as a God, and his simple teaching 

 converted into an ecclesiastical ritual of the most superstitious 

 character. Neither in China, nor in India, nor in Thibet, does the 

 spirit of Buddha influence so called Buddhists. What has received 

 the name of Buddhism is merely the sui^vival of that Paganism 

 which Buddha failed to subvert. Even among the southern 

 Buddhists of Ceylon and Burmah the number of real followers of 

 Buddha's own teaching is probably very small. 



The date of Buddha's birth and death is still a controversial 

 question. He has been even placed as late as the time of Alexander 

 the Great. The first authentic documents are the monumental 

 decrees of Asoka, in the third century B.C., which speak of the 

 Dhamma or sacred " law," of the Sangha or Buddhist " society," 

 and of the Bhikhtis or disciples." From the twelfth Edict it seems 

 that many sects were equally tolerated by Asoka, and in the 

 seventh we read : 



" King Piyadasi, beloved of the gods, desires that all the sects 

 should dwell at liberty in all places. They all indeed seek equally 

 after submission and purity of heart, though the people ai'e fickle 

 in their aims, and fickle in their attachments." 



The spread of Buddhism followed Alexander's march to India 

 and Asoka himself was half a Greek, and mentions Antiochus 

 Theos, Ptolemy II., Magas of Cyrene, and Alexander II. of Epirug, 

 in his Edicts. It is difficult apparently to trace any Indian 

 philosophy earlier than Alexander's times, and still a moot point 

 whether Greece was more influenced by India in thought or India 

 by Greece ; but the presence of a civilisation which did not regard 

 caste, in Bactria and Persia, certainly gave a great impetus to the 

 Buddhist missionary movement, and the Bhikkus soon appeared in 

 Persia, in Central Asia, and in China. From a passage in Josephus 

 (contra Apion I, 22) it would seem that they even reached 

 Northern Syria before the Christian Era.. 



But Buddha was concei^ned neither with religion nor with 

 philosopliy. The strength of his influence lay in his great com- 

 passion for the troubles of his fellow men. What he conceived to 

 be the remedy was a " self control," which should put an end to 

 ambition, avarice, and war. Prof. Rhys Davids (Buddhism, p. 88) 

 sums up his teaching in the following extract: — "Try to get 



