The element in Buddhism which more than any other, perhaps, gave it an advantage over all surrounding religions, and led to its surprising extension, was the spirit of uni versal charity and sympathy that it breathed, as contrasted with the exclusiveness of caste. In this respect, it held much the same relation to Brahmanism that Christianity did to Judaism. It was, in fact, a reaction against the exclusiveness and formalism of Brahmanism—an attempt to render it more catholic, and to throw off its intolerable bur den of ceremonies. Buddhism did not expressly abolish caste, but only declared that all followers of the Buddha who embraced the religious life were thereby released from its restrictions; in the bosom of a community who had all equally renounced the world, high and low, the twice-born Brahman and the outcast were brethren. This was the very way that dealt with the slavery of the ancient world. This opening of its ranks to all classes and to both sexes—for women were admitted to equal hopes and privileges with men, and one of Gautama's early female disciples is to be the supreme Buddha of a future cycle—no doubt gave Buddhism one great advantage over Brahman ism, The Buddha, says M. "addressed himself to castes and outcasts. Ile promised salvation to all; and he commanded his disciples to preach his doctrine in all places and to all men. A sense of duty, extending from the narrow limits of the house, the village, and the country, to the widest circle of mankind, a feeling of sympathy and brotherhood towards all men, the idea, in fact, of humanity, were first pronounced by Buddha." This led to that remarkable missionary movement, already adverted to, which, beginning 300 B.C., sent forth a succession of devoted men, who spent their lives in spreading the faith of Buddha over all parts of Asia.
In the characteristic above mentioned, and in many other respects, the reader can not fail to remark the striking resemblance that Buddhism presents to Christianity, and this in spite of the perverse theory on which it is founded. So numerous and surpris ing are the analogies and coincidences, that Mrs. Speir, in her book on Life in Ancient India, " could almost imagine that before God planted Christianity upon earth, he took a branch from the luxuriant tree, and threw it down to Iudia." It would be superfluous to attempt here any forma] refutation of the religion of the Buddha. To the readers of this work, the fundamental errors of the theory will be apparent enough. By giving prominence to the extravagances and almost inconceivable puerilities and absurdities with which the system has been overloaded, it would have been easy to make it look sufficiently ridiculous, But this is not to depict, it is to cari cature. It is only too common for Christian writers to treat of heathen religions in such fashion. The only fair—the only true account of any religion, is that which enables the reader to conceive how human beings may have come to believe it and live by it. It is this object that has been chiefly kept in view in the preceding meager sketch of a vast subject. Those who wish to pursue it further are referred to Spence Hardy's Manual of Buddhism, and his Eastern Monachisni, consisting chiefly of translations from the sacred books used in Ceylon; to J. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, Le Bouddha et sa Religion; and especially to a complete and elaborate digest by C. F. Kocppen of Berlin, in two of the Buddha, and Lamaist lb:cram/1y of Thibet.