Ages. We cannot speak here of the
strange guise Buddhism has assumed in the north of India, notably in
Tibet. The Lamaism of that country, with its perpetual living
incarnation of the divine Buddha in a succession of human
representatives, its hierarchical church strongly resembling in many
of its features the Church of Rome, and the prayer-flags and wheels
for the mechanical discharge of religious acts, have long been the
wonder of the world.

Conclusion.--It is not from what Buddhism is now in any of the
countries where it flourishes, and where it has votaries who profess
other religions also, that we can judge of what it really is, or
estimate its value as a product of the human mind. It is to early
Buddhism that we must look for this. What are we to judge of this
religion without gods, and based on the assertion that all life is
suffering, and that the chief good is altogether to escape from life?
It is not true to characterise it as a religion in which there is no
joy, and which deliberately refuses to have anything to do with joy.
The Arahat, in whom desire is vanquished, and who has no further
birth to anticipate, is filled with a deep joy and triumph as of a
victor who has conquered every foe; and those who are less advanced
in the path yet have their share in this enthusiasm, and are inspired
by it to continue the struggle. Still Buddhism is a sad religion. It
arrives in India when the Deity there believed in has deserted the
world, and tells man he is alone in it. There is no one to help him,
no one to assure him that the good cause in a wider sense--a cause
extending beyond his own personal life--is destined to succeed; there
is no upholder of any moral order beyond that which works itself out
in each individual experience. The result is that the believer does
not trouble himself about the world, but only about his own personal
salvation. This religion is not a social force, it aims not at a
Kingdom of God to be built up by the united efforts of multitudes of
the faithful, but only at saving individual souls, which in the act
of being saved are removed beyond all activity and all contact with
the world. Buddhism, therefore, is not a power which makes actively
for civilisation. It is a powerful agent for the taming of passion
and the prevention of vagrant and lawless desires, it tends,
therefore, towards peace. But it offers no stimulus to the
realisation of the riches which are given to man in his own nature