No. 28. — 1884.] fiest fifty jatakas. 



Ill 



witness to ancient customs and traditions, I must leave for 

 the present to others. 



Even from the passages [ have quoted above some 

 estimate may be formed of the moral value of the teaching 

 of this section. In regard to that cardinal point of 

 Buddhism, the sin of taking life, and that other ruling 

 maxim, that liberality is best shown in giving to monks, — 

 opinions will, of course, differ in this Society as to the sin or 

 the virtue in itself : that I do not discuss. But assuming 

 the prominence of these in the scale of duties, the criticism 

 which the moralist, of whatever school, must make, is this. 

 A very high standard of self-sacrifice, of perseverance, 

 and of justice, and just ideas of the relative value of pleasure 

 and of wisdom, are set before us. The theory is good. 

 Further, the virtues are illustrated with feeling, with genuine 

 admiration for them, with a fine taste in virtue, so to speak. 

 The theory is understood. But here, for a large part, it 

 ends. The most striking examples are derived from fiction. 

 It is a stag, which sacrificed its life for others ; a horse, 

 which excelled in zeal ; or it is a mythical king who des- 

 pised the world. There are genuine cases, which, to the 

 believer in Buddhist history, are historical, of which this 

 cannot be said, but in which the Buddha in actual life 

 displayed justice, patience, and insight. But the most 

 striking and high-pitched examples of virtue are fictitious. 



It is of course useless to point to the doings of a talking 

 stag as example or proof of virtue. To all but a few— I 

 suppose — even among Buddhists, no serious stimulus to 

 action or proof of what man can do and be, is to be derived 

 from narratives of supposed previous births. It is by the 

 narratives of what Gotama in his historical existence 

 actually did that the value of his example, for all practical 

 purposes, must be judged. 



Now, there is nothing, 1 believe— unless it be the fictions 

 by which the record is accompanied — to prevent our believ- 

 ing that Gotama showed, for instance, the justice and 

 generosity recorded of him in his dealing with the nun, or 

 the tender patience with which he taught the monk who 

 had despaired of ever learning, or the endurance and zeal 

 with which he went his rounds, teaching in the village of 

 Magadha or of the Vajjians. These are the examples and 



