175 
the East; I also compassionate those Rationalists who are 
repelled, by manifest error in popular Christianity, from the 
teaching of Christ and His Apostles. 
If any one has fathomed the depths of mystical philosophy 
as pi'esented to us, for instance, by the Archbishop of Cam- 
bray, or that more able expositress of the mysteries of pure 
love, the amiable and devout Madame Guion, he will un- 
derstand that silence does ofttimes teach more than words 
can eloquently express ; and such will be prepared to appre- 
ciate all that in Buddhism is so imperfectly apprehended, and 
which appears so incomprehensible to the shallow “ thinkers/’ 
whether of the German or the English school, and they may 
perhaps agree with me, that but few of these have even 
waded knee-deep into the great ocean of profundity; much 
less have they lost themselves in Nirvana. 
In the assembly in which the great “ Apologist 33 * of the 
religion of my education was convinced of “ the truth 33 
nothing was spoken but these three sentences : — ■ 
“ In Stillness there is fulness. 
“ In Fulness there is nothingness. 
In Nothingness there is all things ! 33 
This, I take it, is pure Buddhism, and these apothegms 
certainly defy all attempts at explanation by words. Speech 
in this case may be silvern, but silence is golden ! 
Instead of raising a smile, these ought to be regarded as the 
entrance into the vestibule of the solemn old temple of 
mystical philosophy ; a philosophy which I have forsaken, 
and which I account a failure, but which nevertheless presents 
us with some pleasing floioers, if the fruits are not altogether 
such as are those of Christian faith. 
This most ancient religion of Buddhism, as we have recently 
been taught, is more full of promise than any other of the 
forms of false religion. But when brought into contrast with 
Christian philosophy, it fails entirely in all the principal points 
I have noticed. It is ignorant of God. u Inasmuch as Bud- 
dhism declares Karma to be the supi’eme controlling power of 
* Robert Barclay was born in the year 1664, of a good family, in Scot- 
land. He was sent to France for education, and became much embued 
with the tenets of the Roman Catholic faith. On his return home he found 
that his father had embraced the views of the “ Friends,” and his attend- 
ance on their meetings followed. “ One of his most intimate friends asserted 
that he was reached in the time of silence.” In J. Barclay’s Jaffray and the 
Friends of Scotland, 2nd edit., p. 271, will be found “ those f etc words, attri- 
buted to some minister who was present at the first meeting Robert Barclay 
attended, and which are said to have had considerable effect on his mind.” 
His Apology for the true Christian Divinity is dated 1675. 
