concerning spiritual problems puzzling to us all. Though firm believers in unalterable necessity, they strive to reconcile it with the free will of man. Some of them rely chiefly on meditation and faith, the inward operations of the mind; others attach more importance to meritorious works and outward ceremonies. In Thibet are two prominent sects, distinguished by their head-dresses. Those who consider it allowable for the religious to marry, wear red caps. The advocates of strict celibacy, who are much more numerous, wear yellow caps. On what other points their opinions differ is not well understood by foreigners. From time to time, they have been troubled with heretical sects, whose teachers assumed the yellow robe of the priesthood without the sanction of ecclesiastical authorities; and Councils have been called to purify orthodox Buddhism from their alleged impieties.

Buddhists of all sects have always abominated bloody sacrifices, and they carry tenderness toward animals to an extreme degree. Their doctrines likewise induce a charitable disposition toward men. Believing transmigrations of the soul to be regulated by laws of inherent necessity, the religious among them feel for sinners more compassion than contempt or hatred; for they consider moral evil as much a misfortune as a crime. One of their common maxims is that "the preceding births, and the actions committed in those previous existences, are destiny." This tendency to fatality checks all energy and enterprise, and does much to produce the drowsy apathy which characterizes Asiatic countries.

European writers have brought against Buddhists the general charge of atheism. This apparently arises from the fact that their founder named the Source of Being the Infinite Void; from extreme unwillingness to ascribe any form, or any passions, to the Deity. When dying, he is said to have declared to his disciples, as a secret doctrine, unsuited to the populace, that, in the course of revolving ages, all things in the universe, even the gods themselves, would return into The Void, to be reproduced again in new

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forms. This repetition of the astronomical theory of the ancient Bramins has led to the idea that he and his followers were atheists. There is said to be a sect among them called Karnikas, who ascribe consciousness and moral activity to the First Principle, and believe that creation resulted from the exercise of his will, not from laws of inherent necessity. There is much contradiction among writers concerning the date of the Buddhist religion. This confusion arises from the fact that there are several Bouddhas, objects of worship; because the word is not a name, but a title, signifying an extraordinary degree of holiness. Those who have examined the subject most deeply have generally agreed that Bouddha Sakia, from whom the religion takes its name, must have been a real historical personage, who appeared more than a thousand years before Christ. There are many things to confirm this supposition. In some portions of India, his religion appears to have flourished for a long time side by side with that of the Bramins. This is shown by the existence of many ancient temples, some of them cut in subterranean rock, with an immensity of labour, which it must have required a long period to accomplish. In those old temples, his statues represent him with hair knotted all over his head, which was a very ancient custom with the anchorites of Hindostan, before the practice of shaving the head was introduced among their devotees. His religion is also mentioned in one of the very ancient epic poems of India. The severity of the persecution indicates that their numbers and influence had become formidable to the Bramins, who had everything to fear from a sect which abolished hereditary priesthood, and allowed the holy of all castes to become teachers.

Buddhism spread through foreign countries with such rapidity, that it came to be generally designated as "the religion of the Vanquisher," although it was uniformly peaceful in its progress. For the same reason, the Banyan Tree, of rapid and interminable growth, was chosen as its emblem. Marvellous stories are told of the Banyan Tree under which Bouddha Sakia, as a holy anchorite, attained

to complete union with the Supreme Soul. Shoots taken from it were said to send forth roots instantly, and to confirm the faith of the doubtful by ascending into the air, and floating among the clouds, surrounded by a brilliant halo.

Buddhism was introduced into Japan five or six hundred years after Christ. The Japan Encyclopedia enumerates thirty-three ancient patriarchs, or leaders of this religion, the first of whom received the doctrines and writings from Bouddha himself. These men devoted themselves to fasting, prayer, and constant meditation. Several of them burned themselves to death, that the soul might be released from imprisonment in the body, and through the intense purification of fire pass into a happier state of existence. Pictures and images of these patriarchs abound in the temples, and are held in religious veneration.

It is said that eighty thousand followers of Bouddha went forth from Hindostan, as missionaries to other lands; and the traditions of various countries are full of legends concerning their benevolence, holiness, and miraculous power. His religion has never been propagated by the sword. It has been effected entirely by the influence of peaceable and persevering devotees. It now prevails in China, Japan, Thibet, Siam, the Birman Empire, Ceylon, and a large portion of Tartary. The era of the Siamese is the death of Bouddha. In Ceylon, they date from the introduction of his religion into their island. It is supposed to be more extensively adopted than any religion that ever existed. Its votaries are computed at four hundred millions; more than one-third of the whole human race.

Pilgrims from all these countries visit Benares, and other holy cities of India, which they all revere as the fountainhead of their Religion. They speak of it as "The Kingdom of Virtues," "The Exceeding Pure Region," "The Sacred Land."

CHALDEA AND PERSIA.

"Chaldean shepherds, ranging trackless fields,
Looked on the Polar Star, as on a guide

And guardian of their course, that never closed
His steadfast eye. The Planetary Five
With a submissive reverence they beheld;
Watched from the centre of their sleeping flocks
Those radiant Mercuries, that seemed to move,
Carrying through ether, in perpetual round,
Decrees and resolutions of the Gods;
And, by their aspects, signifying works
Of dim futurity, to man revealed."

"The Persian, zealous to reject

Altar and image, and the inclusive walls
And roofs of temples built by human hands,
Presented sacrifice to Moon and Stars,

And the whole Circle of the Heavens; for him
A sensitive Existence and a God."

WORDSWORTH.

EGYPTIANS affirmed that Chaldea was settled by a colony from their country; but many learned men believe that Egypt was younger than Chaldea, and settled by emigrants from thence. It is a matter of mere conjecture, for Chaldean literature is all destroyed, and their famous capital, Babylon, being mostly built of bricks and bitumen, has left no vestiges by which to reckon historical dates. When Alexander the Great conquered the city, Chaldean priests boasted to the Greek philosophers, who followed his army, that they had continued their astronomical calculations through a period of more than forty thousand years. The earliest records actually found by the Greeks extended back two thousand two hundred and thirty-four years before the Christian era; only one hundred and fourteen years after our commonly received epoch of the Flood,

The great antiquity of Chaldea cannot be doubted, and its intimate connection with Hindostan, or Egypt, is abundantly proved by the little that is known concerning its religion, and by the few fragments that remain of its former grandeur. The ruins of Nineveh have lately been excavated, after having lain concealed from the eye of man for two thousand five hundred years. Obelisks, and gigantic sphinxes have thus been brought to light, and images of the sacred bull, often represented winged and with a human head. The sun, moon, and trident of Siva were found over the entrances of temples, the same as in Hindostan. Hieroglyphics were cut on the monuments, and the sculptures were painted blue, red, and yellow, the brightness of which faded when exposed to the air, after their long interment. The triangular harp of Egypt is represented, and so is the Tree of Life, which both in Egypt and Hindostan was believed to confer immortality on those who ate of its fruit. The attitude of adoration, standing with uplifted hands, is the same as in Egypt. Deities are represented with the heads of birds, and carry lotus-blossoms in their hands, or rings to represent completed cycles. The bull, the ram, the lion, the goat, the seven planets, and other astronomical emblems, occur everywhere. One of their deities is represented with four wings, each terminating in a star. An orb with wings is conspicuous among their sacred emblems, and strongly resembles the winged globe of the Egyptians, the symbol of Osiris. Diodorus, the historian, says Chaldeans called the planets by the very same names which Greeks used to designate them, and Greeks borrowed their names from the Egyptians. The sexual emblem, so common in Egypt and Hindostan, has not been found on the ruins of Nineveh.

Chaldeans believed in One Supreme Being, and a multitude of subordinate deities emanating from him, in successive gradations. Spirits that were nearer the Divine Source were clothed with more ethereal forms than those more remote. The human soul was a portion of God, and originally had wings, which having perished, must VOL. I.-22