Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1871-03-24

'N'" 5iohsSs why hio 'hp peiioi HiShHSoo
had bade her hope ON the eve of his de-
parture for the war
The FOUNDER OF BUDDHIsM.--Seven
centuries beforethe Christian era, a prince
of one of the royal families of India,
having exhausted, in his 29th year, all
the pleasures of the world, and having
in him one of the deepest, most compre-
hensive, and most creative of human in
tellects, suddenly abandoned il disgust
his palace, his family, his treasures and
his state, took the name of Gotama,
which means, che who kills the senses"
became religious mendicant walked
about in a shroud taken from the dead
body Of femaleslave; taught, preached
and gathered about him body of en-
thusiastic disciples, bound together by
the most efficient of all ecclesiastical or
ganizations; dictated or inspired works
which as now published by the Chinese
government in four languages, occupy
800 volumes, and died at the age of so,
the founder of the Buddhist religion
Compared with this man, Mohomet was
an ignorant and ferocious barbarian and
the proudest names in western philoso-
ply lose little of their lustre when
placed by the side of this thinker, who
grappled with the greatest problems of
existence with the mightiest force of con-
ception and reasoning. As philosopher
he anticipated both the idealism Of
Berkeley and the positiveism of Comte
as political thinker, he anticipated the
noblest truth Of our Declaration of In
dependence" and 2500 years ago taught
against the caste system of India, the
doctrine of the equality of men and in
that region Of influence, higher than
thst in which either philosophy or states
manship works, he founded religion
which is now professed by two-thirds of
the human race, and which thus exceeds
in the nvmber of its votaries that of any
other religion in the world. Buddhism
has been corrupted by fantastic my
thology but its essential principle, de-
rived from its founders disgust of exis-
tence, is that life is not worth living, and
that the extinction of life is the highest
reward of virtue. To pass in the next
world, through various penal or purify
ing transmigrations until you reach the
bliss of Nirwana, or mere nothingness
and nonentity, that is the Buddhist re-
ligion.
We said it was professed by two-ffths
of the human family, but its fundamen-
tai principle that life is not worth living
is believed, if not professed, by large
majority of mankind. Mt to speak of
the hundreds of wailing books which
misanthropic genius has contributed to
all modern literature, not to remind the
reader that the Buddhist Byron is the
most popular British poet of the century
that person must have been singularly
blessed with cheerful companions who
has not met followers of Gotama among
the nominal believers in Christ. The in
fection of the doctrine as an interpreta-
tion of human experience is so great that
comparatively few have altogether es-
capped its influence. In basing his relig-
ion on this disease of human nature, Got
anna showed profounder sagacity than
that evinced by any other founder of a
false religion and in the east this pre-
sented its most despairing phase, for there
weariness of life was associated both with
the safety of the rich and the wretched-
ness of the poor.
But whence comes this disgust of life
We answer from the comparative alb
sence of life. No man feels it, who feels
The abounding reality of spiritual exist
ence glowing within him; for rightly
sings the poet:
"Whatever crazy sorrow SAITH 4
No life that oreathes with human breath
Has ever truly longed for death.
''Tis life. whereof our nerves are scant, {
% ME, not death. for which we psnt
More life and fuller that we want !"
e p. Whippte IN atlantic Monthly. {