are only tentative, but they give the time nearly enough to
serve as a guide. From the Buddhists (Ceylon account) it is
known that the Council at V[=a]ic[=a]li was held one hundred
years after Buddha's death (one hundred and eighteen years
before the coronation of Acoka, whose grandfather,
Candragupta, was Alexander's contemporary). The interval
between Nirvana and Acoka, two hundred and eighteen years,
is the only certain date according to Koeppen, p.208, and
despite much argument since he wrote, the remark still
holds.]

[Footnote 23: Englished by Rhys Davids,
_Mah[=a]parinibb[=a]na-sutta_ (SBE. XI. 95 ff.).]

[Footnote 24: _Ecclesiastes_.]

[Footnote 25: The common view is thus expressed by
Oldenberg: "In dem schwuelen, feuchten, von der Natur mit
Reichthuemern ueppig gesegneten Tropenlande des Ganges hat das
Volk, das in frischer Jugendkraft steht, als es vom Norden
her eindringt, bald aufgehoert jung und stark zu sein.
Menschen und Voelker reifen in jenem Lande ... schnell heran,
um ebenso schnell an Leib und Seele zu erschlaffen" (_loc.
cit_. p. 11).]

[Footnote 26: Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, pp. 160,139.]

[Footnote 27: Buddha taught, of course, nothing related to
the thaumaturgy of that folly which calls itself today
'Esoteric Buddhism.']

[Footnote 28: That is a sacrifice where no cattle are slain,
and no injury is done to living beings.]

[Footnote 29: _K[=u]tadanta-sutta_ Oldenberg, _Buddha_, p.
175.]

[Footnote 30: Sometimes distinguished from
_pari-nirv[=a][n.]a_ as absolute annihilation.]

[Footnote 31: Some scholars think that the doctrine of
Buddha resembles closely that of the S[=a]nkhya philosophy
(so Barth, p. 116), but Mueller, Oldenberg, and others,
appear to be right in denying this. The Sankhyan 'spirit'
has, for instance, nothing corresponding to it in Buddha's
system.]

[Footnote 32: The twelve Nid[=a]nas are dogmatic, and withal
not very logical. "From ignorance arise forms, from forms
arises consciousness, from consciousness arise name and
bodiness; from name and bodiness arise the six senses
(including understanding as the sixth) and their objects;
from these arises contact; from this, feeling; from this,
thirst; from this, clinging; from clinging arises becoming;