sary first to be sober and good, then to be learned, but not
to be an ascetic. On the other hand the doctrine, in its logical
fullness, was a teaching only for the wise, not for fools. He imparted
it only to the wise. What is one to understand from this? Clearly,
that Buddha regarded the mass of his disciples as standing in need
merely of the Four Great Truths, the confession of which was the sign
of becoming a disciple; while to the strong and wise he reserved the
logical pessimism, which resulted from his first denials and the
premises of causality on which was created his complicated system.
Only thus can one comprehend the importance of Buddhism to his own
time and people, only in this light reconcile the discrepancy between
the accounts of a religion which roused multitudes to enthusiasm and
joy, while on the other hand it stood on the cold basis of complete
nihilism. Formally there was not an esoteric[27] and exoteric
Buddhism, but practically what the apostles taught, what Buddha
himself taught to the mass of his hearers was a release from the
bondage of the law and the freedom of a high moral code as the one
thing needful. But he never taught that sacrifice was a bad thing; he
never either took the priest's place himself or cast scorn upon the
Brahman caste: "Better even than a harmless[28] sacrifice is
liberality" he says, "better than liberality is faith and kindness
(non-injury) and truth, better than faith, kindness, and truth is
renunciation of the world and the search for peace; best of all, the
highest sacrifice and greatest good, is when one enters Nirv[=a]na,
saying "I shall not return again to earth." This is to be an Arhat
(Perfect Sage).

These are Buddha's own words as he spoke with a Brahman priest,[29]
who was converted thereby and replied at once with the Buddhist's
confession of faith: "I take refuge in Buddha, in the doctrine, in the
church."

A significant conversation! In many ways these words should be
corrective of much that is hazarded today in regard to Buddhism. There
is here no elaborate system of metaphysics. Wisdom consists in the
truth as it is in Buddha; and before truth stand, as antecedently
essential, faith and kindness; for so may one render the passive
non-injury of the Brahman as taught by the Buddhist. To have faith and
good works, to renounce the pomps and vanities of life, to show
kindness to every living thing, to seek for salvation, to understand,
and so finally to lea