Tae researches of modern scholars have done very much to clear up the mist that hung around the name, and veiled the achievements of the founder of Bud-elbism. Professor Max Muller recalls the time when Buddha, Christ, and Mani were declared to be one and the same person, and reminds us that even in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries elaborate books were written to prove that Buddha had been in reality the Thoth of the Egyptians, that he was Mercury, or Wodan, or Zoroaster, or Pythagoras, We have emerged from this dreary mud-die, and are now able to discern in all the comeliness of its virtue the august life of the prince of Kapilavastu. This may be studied with advantage by every one, but in fixing our attention upon the admirable lessons of the Tesche, we must not forget the less pleasant part of the subject, viz., the superstitious observances which disfigure his religion, Mr. Wylie's lecture at the Temperance Hall on Saturday last called attention to several interesting points and suggested various singular reflections. There are scattered over the East divers relics of the great Sakyamoni, which are regarded with the utmost reverence by the votaries of his religion. Of course, as may be expected, they are sufficiently fantastic and monstrous; the footprint in Ceylon and the teeth in the monas tery near Ningpo prove that the saint must have been a veritable child of Anak, It is very easy to extract a laugh from an audience by dwelling on these ab-ities; but as Mr. Wylie hinted, the history of relics and relic worship is bound up with the history of Chris. tianity as well as with that of Buddhism.
relic-worship is Pagan, at least this is the It seems pretty plain that the origin of opinion of Cyril of Alexandria, but the Church very soon borrowed from the older faith this unhappy and superstitious practice. Theodoret, who lived in the fourth century, writes thus on the subject: "Some hang up artificial eyes, others "feet, and others hands of gold and sil-"ver, These monuments publish the "virtue of those who are buried in these "tombs, as their influence publishes that "the God for whom they suffered is the "true God." The origin of all the abuses that grew up in this connection is certainly one of the most laudable and natural feelings of the human heart, We are all more or less attached to the relics of dear friends who are dead, and we have most of us an interest in the various remains of illustrious personages, Dishonest and designing men will always be-found ready to trade on the emotions of simpler people, and hence the production of spurious relics which disgraced the seventh century above all others, and continued even in our own country to the time of the Reformation, No religious, or rather perhaps intelleotual, rebellion similar to that which marked the 16th century in Europe, hag yet taken place in the lands where Buddhis holds sway. The chances are that no violent and clamorous revolution will disturb its empire. It is more likely to crumble gradually to pieces. That which it has of truth will last, and the accretions that. have grown up will one by one disappear. Amongst these follies
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.