hose who believe in him. Buddha, who denied the existence, or at
least the divine nature, of the gods worshipped by the Brahmans, was
raised himself to the rank of a deity by some of his followers (the
Ai_s_varikas), and we need not wonder therefore if his Nirva_n_a too
was gradually changed into an Elysian field. And finally, if we may
argue from human nature, such as we find it at all times and in all
countries, we confess that we cannot bring ourselves to believe that
the reformer of India, the teacher of so perfect a code of morality,
the young prince who gave up all he had in order to help those whom
he saw afflicted in mind, body, or estate, should have cared much
about speculations which he knew would either be misunderstood, or not
understood at all, by those whom he wished to benefit; that he should
have thrown away one of the most powerful weapons in the hands of
every religious teacher, the belief in a future life, and should not
have seen, that if this life was sooner or later to end in nothing, it
was hardly worth the trouble which he took himself, or the sacrifices
which he imposed on his disciples.

_April, 1862._

[Footnote 65: 'L'enfant egare,' par Ph. Ed. Foucaux, p. 19.]

X.

BUDDHIST PILGRIMS.[66]

M. Stanislas Julien has commenced the publication of a work entitled,
'Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhistes.' The first volume, published in the
year 1853, contains the biography of Hiouen-thsang, who, in the middle
of the seventh century A.D., travelled from China through Central Asia
to India. The second, which has just reached us, gives us the first
portion of Hiouen-thsang's own diary.

[Footnote 66: 'Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhistes.' Vol. I. Histoire de
la Vie de Hiouen-thsang, et de ses Voyages dans l'Inde, depuis l'an
629 jusqu'en 645, par Hoeili et Yen-thsong; traduite du Chinois par
Stanislas Julien.

Vol. II. Memoires sur les Contrees Occidentales, traduits du Sanscrit
en Chinois, en l'an 648, par Hiouen-thsang, et du Chinois en Francais,
pas Stanislas Julien. Paris, 1853-1857: B. Duprat. London and
Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate.]

There are not many books of travel which can be compared to these
volumes. Hiouen-thsang passed through countries which few had visited
before him. He describes parts of the world which no one has explored
since, and where even our modern maps contain hardly more than the
ingenious conjectures of Alexander von Humboldt. His observations are
minute; hi