184 THE REV. R. COLLINS^ ON 



second century (circa a.d. 230) and he considered 

 that the evidence showed them to be parodies of 

 those recorded in the gospels. The motive for adopting 

 them, was presumably the necessity of withstanding the spread 

 of Christianity in India. The popular Buddhism of Japan is 

 as dissimilar to the original system as some aspects of Christianity 

 in the present day are to primitive Christianity : so that tlie 

 millions of either country may be said, in a sense, to live and die 

 professing to hold the tenets either of Gautama or Christ. But 

 a reversal to the original teaching of Christ undoubtedly results in 

 Light — the Light of life, whilst a return to primitive Buddhism 

 would be but a plunge into darkness a few degrees less obscure 

 than total eclipse. 



Professor Legge, D.D., (of Oxford), writes : — 



I am sorry that I shall not be able to be present at the Meeting 

 of the Victoria Institute to-night, and hear Mr. Collins's excellent 

 paper on " Buddhism " and " the Light of Asia," which is to be 

 read at it. I can only now seize a few minutes to express my 

 agreement with Mr. Collins's judgments. 



Of the literary and poetical merits of Sir Edwin Arnold's work 

 it is not necessary to speak ; and I would be far from denying the 

 value and beauty of much of the teaching of Buddhism on human 

 duty, and the course of life which man ought to pursue. The 

 benevolence which it inculcates is also very attractive, and its 

 spirit of generous self-sacrifice commands my highest admiration. 

 At the same time, the exhibition of the virtues of kindness is often so 

 grotesque that it does not fail to av/aken a wondering astonishment 

 in the beholder, and pity for the folly of the exhibitors. With 

 such a feeling it was that I used to turn away from looking at the 

 swine in the Honan Joss-house, opposite Canton; over-fed and 

 over-grown, wallowing helplessly in their own filth, and at the 

 over-crowded fish-pond on the top of Drum hill near Fu-chan. 



As ridiculous are many of the stories of the self-sacrifice of 

 Buddha himself, which were current as early as the time of Fa- 

 bsien, in our fourth century, such as his saving a dove from the 

 pursuing hawk by slicing a piece out of his own body, and 

 throwing it to the latter, or his giving himself to be eaten by a 

 starving tigress to make milk to feed her cubs. 



