s geographical, statistical, and historical remarks most
accurate and trustworthy. The chief object of his travels was to study
the religion of Buddha, the great reformer of India. Some Chinese
pilgrims visited India before, several after, his time. Hiouen-thsang,
however, is considered by the Chinese themselves as the most
distinguished of these pilgrims, and M. Stanislas Julien has rightly
assigned to him the first place in his collection.

In order to understand what Hiouen-thsang was, and to appreciate his
life and his labours, we must first cast a glance at the history of a
religion which, however unattractive and even mischievous it may
appear to ourselves, inspired her votary with the true spirit of
devotion and self-sacrifice. That religion has now existed for exactly
2,400 years. To millions and millions of human beings it has been the
only preparation for a higher life placed within their reach. And even
at the present day it counts among the hordes of Asia a more numerous
array of believers than any other faith, not excluding Mohammedanism
or Christianity. The religion of Buddha took its origin in India about
the middle of the sixth century B.C., but it did not assume its
political importance till about the time of Alexander's invasion. We
know little, therefore, of its first origin and spreading, because the
canonical works on which we must chiefly rely for information belong
to a much later period, and are strongly tinged with a legendary
character. The very existence of such a being as Buddha, the son of
_S_uddhodana, king of Kapilavastu, has been doubted. But what can
never be doubted is this, that Buddhism, such as we find it in
Russia[67] and Sweden[68] on the very threshold of European
civilisation, in the north of Asia, in Mongolia, Tatary, China, Tibet,
Nepal, Siam, Burmah, and Ceylon, had its origin in India. Doctrines
similar to those of Buddha existed in that country long before his
time. We can trace them like meandering roots below the surface long
before we reach the point where the roots strike up into a stem, and
the stem branches off again into fruit-bearing branches. What was
original and new in Buddha was his changing a philosophical system
into a practical doctrine; his taking the wisdom of the few, and
coining as much of it as he thought genuine for the benefit of the
many; his breaking with the traditional formalities of the past, and
proclaiming for the first time, in spite of castes a