n Buddha grew very old he called his disciples around him and
enjoined them to preach the faith after he had passed away for he knew
that at last the hand of Death was near. He died in a little town in
the depths of the jungle, and heavenly music sounded and the trees
burst into blossom as his spirit passed away. He was given a funeral
with all the honor due to a mighty king and after his body was burned,
eight cities requested a share of his ashes. These were placed in eight
great tombs, and the ruins can be seen to the present day.

After the death of Buddha the religion that he preached rapidly spread
through Asia. To-day it is taught in very different forms in different
countries, and the Buddhism of Thibet in China has many elaborate
ceremonies attached to it that the Buddhism of India lacks completely.
Unlike most of the great religions of the world, Buddhism has never
been spread by the sword, but has crept into the minds of men through
its own power. And everywhere it is granted that Buddha was a great man
and a great teacher, and that many of the principles he taught are
second only to those included in the Christian faith.

CHAPTER II

JULIUS CAESAR

Once in a great while a man is born with such a temper of brain and
will that he seems like a bright star among other men and can do things
easily that are impossible for others to accomplish. One hundred years
before the birth of Christ such a man was born in the city of Rome. His
name was Julius Caesar and he came from a long line of Roman noblemen
which ran back so far into history that it not only reached beyond the
beginning of Rome itself, but was believed to have sprung from the
goddess, Venus. Caesar's father died when he was little more than a boy
and his mother was partly responsible for the greatness that he later
maintained, for she strove constantly to develop in him those qualities
of mind and character that were an inheritance from his family,
although they were brought to far greater light in Caesar himself.
Little is known of Caesar's boyhood. It is probable that it was not very
different from that of other young Romans who belonged to the nobility,
or, as it was then called, the patrician class. He had a tutor named
Gnipho who was not a Roman by birth, but a Gaul--that is a man who came
from one of the less civilized tribes that lived to the north of Italy
in the country that is now called modern France--and received from him
the usua