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REMARKS ON BUDDHISM. By J. ELIOT HOWARD, Esq., F.R.S. . 
The subject is one fraught with interest to the Christian mind, as affecting 
the happiness of so many millions of our fellow-creatures. It has also a 
special claim on the attention of the Victoria Institute as affording, when 
viewed in a philosophic spirit, strong confirmation to the truth of Holy 
Writ. This Institute proposes “to examine and discuss, with reference to 
final causes, and the more comprehensive and fundamental principles of 
philosophy proper, based upon faith in the existence of One Eternal God, 
who in His wisdom created every thing very good ” ; * and yet we see in 
Buddhism the protest of a very large portion of the human race against 
every word in the above proposition of philosophy, which seems to us so 
clear and simple, because we have received these truths with unquestioning 
submission, as inseparable from the Christian faith. 
It is as Christians that we are entitled to thank God for our creation. It 
is as taking a right view of Christianity, and of our personal interest in its 
blessings, that we are encouraged under all circumstances to place a cheerful 
trust in God, and to know that all things work together for good to those 
who love Him. 
Abandoning the hope set before us in the Gospel, the most “ advanced ” 
school of German thought discovers that there is a great deal to be said for 
the views of life presented by the philosophy of which Buddhism, however 
ancient, is perhaps but a comparatively modern exponent. The philosophy of 
these writers has “ advanced ” so far that the sun of their wisdom has passed 
the autumnal equinox, and is rapidly descending towards the winter of 
Nihilism , . 
It certainly appears to our conceptions a very shocking assertion, that 
non-existence is, after all, preferable to existence ; but in the grandest and 
perhaps the oldest treatise on Providence, we find the man suffering under 
its mysterious visitations inclining to this way of thinking, and desiring 
“ that God would let loose His hand and cut him off.” f Not only so, but 
those who have access outwardly to the inspired records, which might set 
them right, may hold fast the lie, though it burns into their very souls. In 
all such cases, true charity would lead us to seek to show that a fundamental 
misconception of the character of God lies at the root of all this pernicious 
and morbid view of the dealings of Providence. 
* See “ Objects of the Viet. Inst.”— Third. 
YOL. VIII. N 
t Job vi. 8. 
