e evening. The full moon[394]
came out and in the three watches of the night he attained
enlightenment.

The Pali and early Sanskrit texts place the most striking legendary
scenes in the first part of the Buddha's life just as scribes give
freest rein to their artistic imagination in tracing the first letter
and word of a chapter. In the later version, the whole text is coloured
and gilded with a splendour that exceeds the hues of ordinary life but
no incidents of capital importance are added after the
Enlightenment[395]. Historical names still occur and the Buddha is still
a wandering teacher with a band of disciples, but his miracles
continually convulse the universe: he preaches to mankind from the sky
and retires for three months to the Tusita Heaven in order to instruct
his mother, who had died before she could hear the truth from her son's
lips, and often the whole scene passes into a vision where the ordinary
limits of space, time and number cease to have any meaning.

CHAPTER IX

THE BUDDHA COMPARED WITH OTHER RELIGIOUS TEACHERS

The personality of the Buddha invites comparison with the founders of
the other world-religions, Christ and Mohammed. We are tempted to ask
too if there is any resemblance between him and Confucius, a
contemporary Asiatic whose influence has been equally lasting, but here
there is little common ground. For Confucius's interest was mainly in
social and ethical problems, not in religion. He laid stress on those
ties of kinship and society, respecting which the Indian monk (like
Christ) sometimes spoke harshly, although there is a strong likeness
between the moral code of the Buddhist layman and Confucianism: he was
full of humility and respect for antiquity, whereas Gotama had a good
share of that self-confidence which is necessary for all who propound to
the world a new religion.[396]

But with Mohammed comparison, or rather contrast, is easier. Both were
seekers after truth: both found what they believed to be the truth only
when of mature years, Gotama when about thirty-six, Mohammed when forty
or more: both lived to be elderly men and possessed great authority. But
there the analogy ends. Perhaps no single human being has had so great
an effect on the world as Mohammed. His achievements are personal and,
had he never lived, it is not clear that the circumstances of the age
would have caused some one else to play approximately the same part. He
more than Caesar or Alexand