t of work is good,
he knows. A little work he likes; a good deal of work he does, because
he is obliged often to do so to earn even the little he requires. And
that is the end. He is a free man, never a slave to other men, nor to
himself.

Therefore I do not think his will ever make what we call a great nation.
He will never try to be a conqueror of other peoples, either with the
sword, with trade, or with religion. He will never care to have a great
voice in the management of the world. He does not care to interfere with
other people: he never believes interference can do other than harm to
both sides.

He will never be very rich, very powerful, very advanced in science,
perhaps not even in art, though I am not sure about that. It may be he
will be very great in literature and art. But, however that may be, in
his own idea his will be always the greatest nation in the world,
because it is the happiest.

CHAPTER X

THE MONKHOOD--I

'Let his life be kindness, his conduct righteousness; then in the
fulness of gladness he will make an end of grief.'--_Dammapada._

During his lifetime, that long lifetime that remained to him after he
had found the light, Gaudama the Buddha gathered round him many
disciples. They came to learn from his lips of that truth which he had
found, and they remained near him to practise that life which alone can
lead unto the Great Peace.

From time to time, as occasion arose, the teacher laid down precepts and
rules to assist those who desired to live as he did--precepts and rules
designed to help his disciples in the right way. Thus there arose about
him a brotherhood of those who were striving to purify their souls, and
lead the higher life, and that brotherhood has lasted ever since, till
you see in it the monkhood of to-day, for that is all that the monks
are--a brotherhood of men who are trying to live as their great master
lived, to purify their souls from the lust of life, to travel the road
that reaches unto deliverance. Only that, nothing more.

There is no idea of priesthood about it at all, for by a priest we
understand one who has received from above some power, who is, as it
were, a representative on earth of God. Priests, to our thinking, are
those who have delegated to them some of that authority of which God is
the fountainhead. They can absolve from sin, we think; they can accept
into the faith; they can eject from it; they can exhort with authority;
th