ics of most religions, not
excluding our own Gnosticism and Mysticism, were beyond the reach of
all except a few hardened philosophers or ecstatic dreamers. Human
nature could not be changed. Out of the very nothing it made a new
paradise; and he who had left no place in the whole universe for a
Divine Being, was deified himself by the multitudes who wanted a
person whom they could worship, a king whose help they might invoke, a
friend before whom they could pour out their most secret griefs. And
there remained the code of a pure morality, proclaimed by Buddha.
There remained the spirit of charity, kindness, and universal pity
with which he had inspired his disciples.[75] There remained the
simplicity of the ceremonial he had taught, the equality of all men
which he had declared, the religious toleration which he had preached
from the beginning. There remained much, therefore, to account for the
rapid strides which his doctrine made from the mountain peaks of
Ceylon to the Tundras of the Samoyedes, and we shall see in the simple
story of the life of Hiouen-thsang that Buddhism, with all its
defects, has had its heroes, its martyrs, and its saints.

[Footnote 75: See the 'Dhammapadam,' a Pali work on Buddhist ethics,
lately edited by V. Fausboell, a distinguished pupil of Professor
Westergaard, at Copenhagen. The Rev. Spence Hardy ('Eastern
Monachism,' p. 169) writes: 'A collection might be made from the
precepts of this work, that in the purity of its ethics could scarcely
be equalled from any other heathen author.' Mr. Knighton, when
speaking of the same work in his 'History of Ceylon' (p. 77), remarks:
'In it we have exemplified a code of morality, and a list of precepts,
which, for pureness, excellence, and wisdom, is only second to that of
the Divine Lawgiver himself.']

Hiouen-thsang, born in China more than a thousand years after the
death of Buddha, was a believer in Buddhism. He dedicated his whole
life to the study of that religion; travelling from his native country
to India, visiting every place mentioned in Buddhist history or
tradition, acquiring the ancient language in which the canonical books
of the Buddhists were written, studying commentaries, discussing
points of difficulty, and defending the orthodox faith at public
councils against disbelievers and schismatics. Buddhism had grown and
changed since the death of its founder, but it had lost nothing of its
vitality. At a very early period a proselyti