dhartha was a prince of the Sakya tribe, whose territories were
situated some hundred miles north-east of the city of Benares. Hence he is
often spoken of under the name of _Sakya-muni_, or the "Sakya sage." As
regards his date, widely different opinions are held; sometimes it is
placed as early as the tenth, and sometimes as late as the third century
B.C. The most competent authorities, however, agree in following the
Buddhists of Ceylon, and take 543 B.C. as the date of his death.(11) His
father's name was Suddhodana; his mother was called Maia. Of the earlier
years of Siddhartha's life we have little information that is at all to be
relied on; but his early manhood appears to have been spent amid the
luxury and self-indulgence customary with Oriental princes. Gautama,
however, was a man of great benevolence, and we are told that, while still
quite young, he pondered deeply on the mystery of the pain and suffering
which held the human race in bondage. Presently, becoming dissatisfied
with his own life of ease and pleasure, he made the "Great Renunciation;"
turning his back, at the age of thirty, on wife and parents, home and
wealth. After spending some years in travel, he retired to the forest,
where he attached himself to a little band of ascetics, and practised
severe forms of discipline and self-mortification; hoping thus to discover
the secret of release from suffering. But meeting with no success, and
still fast bound by the trammels of ignorance, he betook himself to
contemplation; until one day, as he was seated beneath the
Bo-tree,--henceforth to be accounted sacred(12)--the struggles of his soul
prevailed, and he passed out of darkness into light. He was now Buddha, He
who Knew, the Enlightened. The four truths to the knowledge of which
Gautama thus attained, and which form the very foundation of the Buddhist
doctrine, are these--(i) That man is born to suffering, both mental and
physical: he experiences it himself, he inflicts it upon others; (ii) that
this suffering is occasioned by desire; (iii) that the condition of
suffering in which man finds himself admits of amelioration and relief;
(iv) the way of release, and the attainment to Nirvana.

Here we must pause to make the inquiry, What is meant by _Nirvana_,--the
goal of the Buddhist's hope and aim? Literally, the word means
"extinction"; and hence it has often come to be regarded as a mere synonym
for annihilation. The variety of opinions held by European