Dhamma Padam, or the 'Footsteps of the Law,' admits that a collection
might be made from the precepts of this work, which in the purity of
its ethics could hardly be equalled from any other heathen author. M.
Laboulaye, one of the most distinguished members of the French
Academy, remarks in the 'Debats' of the 4th of April, 1853: 'It is
difficult to comprehend how men not assisted by revelation could have
soared so high, and approached so near to the truth.' Besides the five
great commandments not to kill, not to steal, not to commit adultery,
not to lie, not to get drunk, every shade of vice, hypocrisy, anger,
pride, suspicion, greediness, gossiping, cruelty to animals, is
guarded against by special precepts. Among the virtues recommended, we
find not only reverence of parents, care for children, submission to
authority, gratitude, moderation in time of prosperity, submission in
time of trial, equanimity at all times, but virtues unknown in any
heathen system of morality, such as the duty of forgiving insults and
not rewarding evil with evil. All virtues, we are told, spring from
Maitri, and this Maitri can only be translated by charity and love. 'I
do not hesitate,' says Burnouf,[62] 'to translate by charity the word
Maitri; it does not express friendship or the feeling of particular
affection which a man has for one or more of his fellow-creatures, but
that universal feeling which inspires us with good-will towards all
men and constant willingness to help them.' We add one more testimony
from the work of M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire:

'Je n'hesite pas a ajouter,' he writes, 'que, sauf le Christ
tout seul, il n'est point, parmi les fondateurs de religion,
de figure plus pure ni plus touchante que celle du Bouddha.
Sa vie n'a point de tache. Son constant heroisme egale sa
conviction; et si la theorie qu'il preconise est fausse, les
exemples personnels qu'il donne sont irreprochables. Il est
le modele acheve de toutes les vertus qu'il preche; son
abnegation, sa charite son inalterable douceur, ne se
dementent point un seul instant; il abandonne a vingt-neuf
ans la cour du roi son pere pour se faire religieux et
mendiant; il prepare silencieusement sa doctrine par six
annees de retraite et de meditation; il la propage par la
seule puissance de la parole et de la persuasion, pendant
plus d'un demi-siecle; et quand il meurt entre les bras de
ses d