on MIRACLE'S. 



47 



COflgfegated together from different parts, their presence 

 alone was a sufficient check to the evil-disposed ; and we 

 may easily believe that the latter either abandoned trien- 

 nial-practices, of * lied away' from a place where they 

 could not any longer carry on their thievish propensities 

 with impunity ,* and that the precautions, in a sanitary 

 point of view, which the people were enabled to take,, 

 restored peace and health to their households. 



Buddha, moreover, could not delegate his miraculous 

 power. * Every one for himself \ seems to have been his 

 motto. ' Self is the lord of self ; who else could be the 

 lord ? —was his undoubted doctrine.* Neither" he nor 

 any of his eminent disciples could ever set aside' natural 

 laws, so as thereby to affect another' party. If, for instance,, 

 we read of Buddha, as of Abarus the Hyperborean, that he 

 traversed on foot a large sheet of water, f we know for cer- 

 tainty that he could not by his command cause others to 

 do the same. Though, like the Magicians of Egypt, 

 Pilindavaccha was able to convert one substance into 

 another, he could not cause t the little girl' to do what he 

 did, — * change a coil of rushes into a gold ornament.' A 

 careful examination of all the wondrous deeds recorded in 

 the Tepitaka, — indeed the very exemplification of them 

 in the Kevatta Sutta given below,, clearly proves 

 them to have been myths, dumb-shows, or optical delu- 

 sions, 



Buddha it seems, clearly saw the impropriety of such 

 frauds ; and though it would not enter into the plan of a 



* Dhammapada. 



t Maha Vagga in the Vinaya Pitaka. 



