eached love to his disciples. It was just
this word of sympathy of which despairing souls were in need. He bade
to love even those who do us ill. Purna, one of his disciples, went
forth to preach to the barbarians. Buddha said to him to try him,
"There are cruel, passionate, furious men; if they address angry words
to you, what would you think?" "If they addressed angry words to me,"
said Purna, "I should think these are good men, these are gentle men,
these men who attack me with wicked words but who strike me neither
with the hand nor with stones." "But if they strike you, what would
you think?" "I should think that those were good men who did not
strike me with their staves or with their swords." "But if they did
strike you with staff and sword, what would you think then?" "That
those are good men who strike me with staff and sword, but do not take
my life." "But if they should take your life?" "I should think them
good men who delivered me with so little pain from this body filled as
it is with pollution." "Well, well, Purna! You may dwell in the
country of the barbarians. Go, proceed on the way to complete Nirvana
and bring others to the same goal."

=Fraternity.=--The Brahmans, proud of their caste, assert that they
are purer than the others. Buddha loves all men equally, he calls all
to salvation even the pariahs, even the barbarians--all he declares
are equal. "The Brahman," said he, "just like the pariah, is born of
woman; why should he be noble and the other vile?" He receives as
disciples street-sweepers, beggars, cripples, girls who sleep on
dung-hills, even murderers and thieves; he fears no contamination in
touching them. He preaches to them in the street in language simple
with parables.

=Tolerance.=--The Brahmans passed their lives in the practice of
minute rites, regarding as criminal whoever did not observe them.
Buddha demanded neither rites nor exertions. To secure salvation it
was enough to be charitable, chaste, and beneficent. "Benevolence,"
says he, "is the first of virtues. Doing a little good avails more
than the fulfilment of the most arduous religious tasks. The perfect
man is nothing unless he diffuses himself in benefits over creatures,
unless he comforts the afflicted. My doctrine is a doctrine of mercy;
this is why the fortunate in the world find it difficult."

=Later History of Buddhism.=--Thus was established about 500 years
before Christ a religion of an entirely new sort. It is a