, that state of blissful unconsciousness akin to
annihilation which is regarded by Buddhists as the consummation of
eternal felicity.

Gotama, who is represented as the last of the series of Buddhas[1],
promulgated a religious system in India which has exercised a wider
influence over the Eastern world than the doctrines of any other
uninspired teacher in any age or country.[2] He was born B.C. 624 at
Kapila-Vastu (a city which has no place in the geography of the Hindus,
but which appears to have been on the borders of Nepaul); he attained
his superior Buddha-hood B.C. 588, under a bo-tree[3] in the forest of
Urawela, the site of the present Buddha Gaya in Bahar; and, at the age
of eighty, he died at Kusinara, a doubtful locality, which it has been
sought to identify with the widely separated positions of Delhi, Assam,
and Cochin China.[4]

[Footnote 1: There were twenty-four Buddhas previous to the advent of
Gotama, who is the fourth in the present Kalpa or chronological period.
His system of doctrine is to endure for 5000 years, when it will be
superseded by the appearance and preaching of his
successor.--_Rajaratnacari_, ch. i. p. 42.]

[Footnote 2: HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism_, ch. i. p. 1. There is evidence
of the widely-spread worship of Buddha in the remotely separated
individuals with whom it has been sought at various times to identify
him. "Thus it has been attempted to show that Buddha was the same as
Thoth of the Egyptians, and Turm of the Etruscans, that he was Mercury,
Zoroaster, Pythagoras, the Woden of the Scandinavians, the Manes of the
Manichaeans, the prophet Daniel, and even the divine author of
Christianity." (PROFESSOR WILSON, _Journ. Asiat. Soc._, vol. xvi. p.
233.) Another curious illustration of the prevalence of his doctrines
may be discovered in the endless variations of his name in the numerous
countries over which his influence has extended: Buddha, Budda, Bud,
Bot, Baoth, Buto, Budsdo, Bdho, Pout, Pote, Fo, Fod, Fohi, Fuh, Pet,
Pta, Poot, Phthi, Phut, Pht, &c.--POCOCKE'S _India in Greece_, appendix,
397. HARDY'S _Buddhism_, ch. vii. p. 355. HARDY in his _Eastern
Monachism_ says, "There is no country in either Europe or Asia, _except
those that are Buddhist_, in which the same religion is now professed
that was there existent at the time of the Redeemer's death," ch. xxii.
p. 327.]

[Footnote 3: The Pippul, _Ficus religiosa_.]

[Footnote 4: Professor H.H. WILSON has identified Kusinara