here, and hiding the beauty. There are all sorts of
stories of the great portents that foretold his coming: how the sun and
the stars knew, and how the wise men prophesied. Marvels attended his
birth, and miracles followed him in life and in death. And the
appearance of the miraculous has even been heightened by the style of
the chroniclers in telling us of his mental conflicts: by the
personification of evil in the spirit Man, and of desire in his three
beautiful daughters.

All the teacher's thoughts, all his struggles, are materialized into
forms, that they may be more readily brought home to the reader, that
they may be more clearly realized by a primitive people as actual
conflicts.

Therefore at first sight it seems that of all creeds none is so full of
miracle, so teeming with the supernatural, as Buddhism, which is,
indeed, the very reverse of the truth. For to the supernatural Buddhism
owes nothing at all. It is in its very essence opposed to all that goes
beyond what we can see of earthly laws, and miracle is never used as
evidence of the truth of any dogma or of any doctrine.

If every supernatural occurrence were wiped clean out of the chronicles
of the faith, Buddhism would, even to the least understanding of its
followers, remain exactly where it is. Not in one jot or tittle would it
suffer in the authority of its teaching. The great figure of the teacher
would even gain were all the tinsel of the miraculous swept from him, so
that he stood forth to the world as he lived--would gain not only to our
eyes, but even to theirs who believe in him. For the Buddha was no
prophet. He was no messenger from any power above this world, revealing
laws of that power. No one came to whisper into his ear the secrets of
eternity, and to show him where truth lived. In no trance, in no
vision, did he enter into the presence of the Unknown, and return from
thence full of the wisdom of another world; neither did he teach the
worship of any god, of any power. He breathed no threatenings of revenge
for disobedience, of forgiveness for the penitent. He held out no
everlasting hell to those who refused to follow him, no easily gained
heaven to his believers.

He went out to seek wisdom, as many a one has done, looking for the laws
of God with clear eyes to see, with a pure heart to understand, and
after many troubles, after many mistakes, after much suffering, he came
at last to the truth.

Even as Newton sought for the law