CHAPTER III.

FAITH OF SÁKYA.

1. In the infancy of the world, when Man was left to his own unaided reason to solve the mysteries of nature, and the destiny of his race, the most casual observer must have seen that nothing of this earth is lasting; that the loftiest tree, the loveliest flower, the strongest animal, the hardest rock, are all subject to decay; nay, that man himself is nought but dust, and that to dust does he return. Closer observers would have been struck with the perpetual recurrence of seasons; the ever-changing yet unchanged moon; the continued production of plants; and, above all, with the never-failing stream of human life.

2. Such observations would naturally lead to the discrimination of the various elements-earth, water, fire, and air; to a belief in the eternity of matter, and to the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. And thus the material elements, or Nature, with her supposed inherent power of combination and reproduction, became the Deity of this world. But even the most thoughtless man must at times have felt

conscious that he possessed within himself an unseen power which controlled the actions of his body. Hence arose a belief in the existence of Spirit, which was at first made only an inherent power of Nature, but was afterwards preferred before her; and was eventually raised to the position of the Great First Cause and Creator of all things.

3. Such is the course which the human mind most probably went through both in India and in Greece. In process of time the more commanding spirits, who ruled the passions of their fellow-men by the ascendancy of genius, and by unbending firmness of will, were held to be mortal emanations or avatárs of the Supreme Being; and, after death, were exalted to the rank of demigods. Thus, in both countries, heroworship had prevailed from remote antiquity; and the tombs of the mighty had become objects of reverence. In India, the Topes or Tumuli of Krakuchanda, Kanaka, and Kasyapa, existed before the preaching of Sákya; and the ancient elemental deities of the Vedas preceded the worship of Dharma, or concrete Nature.

4. The religious systems of India are all deeply imbued with metaphysical speculations; and the close agreement between these and the philosophical systems of Greece would be an interesting subject to the classical scholar. A strict analysis and comparison of the systems of both countries would most probably tend to mutual elucidation. The Indians have the advantage in point of time; and I feel

satisfied that the Greeks borrowed much of their philosophy from the East. The most perfect system of the Ionics, as developed by Anaxagoras,* is the same as the Sankhya school of India; and the famous doctrines of Pythagoras are intensely Buddhistical. The transmigration of souls is Egyptian as well as Indian: but the prohibition against eating animal food is altogether Buddhist. Women were admitted as members both by Sákya and by Pythagoras; and there were grades in the brotherhood of Pythagoreans, as in the Sangha, or Community of Buddhists. These coincidences between the two systems seem too strong to be accidental.

5. Pythagoras is said to have visited India; and there are some curious verbal coincidences which really seem to countenance the story. Pythagoras married Theano (Sanskrit, Dhyána, "devout contemplation"); and by her had a daughter whom he named Damo (Sanskrit, Dharmma, " virtue, or practical morality"), and who became a most learned Pythagorean. He was the first who assumed the title of pilosopos (Sanskrit, Buddha Mitra), the lover of wisdom, or Budha. His own name is perhaps only a compound of πυθας, or Buddha, and αγορεύω,

• Anaxagoras held that Novs, Mind or Intellect, was not the creator of all things, but only the artist who gave form to preexistent matter. According to him, matter consisted of various particles, which were put in motion by the action of Mind; the homogeneous particles were blended together into an infinite variety of forms, and the heterogeneous were separated.

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