88 



BUDHISM. 



taught by more ancient sages, and this fact may have been 

 exaggerated into the notion of the Buddhas of preceding 

 calpas. 



A considerable part of the lecture is occupied with 

 Buddha's description of the material universe. This is the 

 weak point of Buddhism, which is thus placed in antagonism 

 to the most obvious teachings of science. These statements 

 are no mere allusions to the popular belief of that period ; 

 they are positive and detailed affirmations made by Buddha 

 on the authority of his omniscience. To escape from the 

 difficulty, an ingenious attempt was made a few years ago to 

 prove that these accounts of the universe were to be under- 

 stood in an allegorical sense. Mr. Grogerly however, in his 

 Christiani Pragnyapti demolished this explanation, shewing 

 that what Buddha taught concerning the world was in- 

 tended by him to be believed literally, as an essential part 

 of his religion. Thus the states of reward and punishment 

 are assigned to definite localities in the universe, so that if 

 (for instance) Maha Meru is allegorical, the heavenly worlds 

 on the sides and summit of Maha Meru must be allegorical 

 also. 



Probably the chief novelty in the following lecture will 

 be the representation it gives of Buddha's doctrines as to a 

 Creator. The usual opinion of persons acquainted with 

 Buddhism has been, that the existence of a Supreme Being 

 was neither affirmed nor denied in this system, the subject 

 being simply ignored by Buddha. This however was not 

 Mr. Gogerly's view. He held that the idea of a Supreme 

 and Infinite Creator was familiar to the mind of the founder 

 of Buddhism, and deliberately rejected by him. Some cu- 

 rious extracts on this subject will be found in the lecture* 



