Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. 23 



the same author, published about three years ago, which 

 describes the discipline, rites, and present circumstances of 

 the Buddhist priesthood, will give us a complete idea of the 

 nature and practice of Buddhism. 



The Buddhist religion is that of many millions of people 

 spread over a vast area, the whole of which, however, is in 

 Asia. The Buddhist religion of China differs somewhat from 

 that of India. " The sacred books of Burmah, Siam, and 

 Ceylon, are identically the same. The ancient literature of 

 the Buddhists, in all the regions where this system is pro- 

 fessed, appears to have had its origin in one common source ; 

 but in the observances of the present day there is less uni- 

 formity ; and many of the customs now followed, and of the 

 doctrines now taught, would be regarded by the earlier pro- 

 fessors as perilous innovations." (P. 357.) 



The doctrines of Gotama, therefore, like those of every 

 other founder of a creed, have been modified by his succes- 

 sors. Buddhism, and its powerful results, have been too little 

 studied by philosophic historians. " There have been various 

 opinions as to the age in which Gotama lived : but the 

 era given by the Singhalese authors is now the most gene- 

 rally received. According to their chronology, he expired in 

 the year that, according to our mode of reckoning, would be 

 B.C. 543, in the eightieth year of his age." (P. 353.) 



" Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western 

 Pacific, including the Feejees and others, inhabited by the 

 Polynesian Negro races, in H.M. Ship c Havannah,' by John 

 Elphinstone Erskine, Capt. R.N." This valuable contribution 

 to Ethnological Science is well illustrated by coloured litho- 

 graphs of the natives. This contribution, however, as a 

 whole, is not quite new to us, for the Rev. John Inglis accom- 

 panied Captain Erskine on a missionary tour to some of the 

 islands, and gave us an account of it in a paper read in our 

 Society, December 10, 1851 : and made also a valuable con- 

 tribution therein to the philology of the Papuan race. 



Captain Erskine' s Journal corroborates Mr Inglis' tour, 

 and also adds to our knowledge of other islands in the West- 

 ern Pacific. 



We may expect further information concerning the Pacific 



