This request is refused by Buddha. [=A]nanda then goes to the town and
tells the citizens that Buddha is dying. 'Now, when they had heard
this saying, they, With their young men and maidens and wives were
grieved, and sad, and afflicted at heart. And some of them wept,
dishevelling their hair, and stretched forth their arms, and wept,
fell prostrate on the ground and rolled to and fro, in anguish at
the thought "Too soon will the Blessed One die! Too soon will the
Happy One pass away! Full soon will the Light of the world vanish
away!"' ... When Buddha is alone again with his disciples, 'then the
Blessed One addressed the brethren and said "It may be, brethren, that
there may be doubt or misgiving in the mind of some brother as to the
Buddha, the truth, the path or the way. Inquire, brethren, freely. Do
not have to reproach yourselves afterwards with this thought: 'Our
Teacher was face to face with us, and we could not bring ourselves to
inquire of the Blessed One when we were face to face with him.'" And
when he had thus spoken they sat silent. Then (after repeating these
words and receiving no reply) the Blessed One addressed the brethren
and said, "It may be that you put no questions out of reverence for
the Teacher. Let one friend communicate with another." And when he had
thus spoken the brethren sat silent. And the venerable [=A]nanda said:
"How wonderful a thing, Lord, and how marvellous. Verily, in this
whole assembly, there is not one brother who has doubt or misgiving as
to Buddha, the truth, the path or the way." Then Buddha said: "It is
out of the fullness of thy faith that thou hast spoken, [=A]nanda. But
I know it for certain." ... Then the Blessed One addressed the
brethren saying: "Behold, brethren, I exhort you saying, transitory
are all component things; toil without ceasing." And these were the
last words of Buddha.'

It is necessary here to make pause for a moment and survey the
temporal and geographical circumstances of Buddha's life. His lifetime
covered the period of greatest intellectual growth in Athens. If, as
some think, the great book of doubt[24] was written by the Hebrew in
450, there would be in three lands, at least, about the same time the
same earnestly scornful skepticism in regard to the worn-out teachings
of the fathers. But at a time when, in Greece, the greatest minds were
still veiling infidelity as best they could, in India atheism was
already formulated.

It has been questione