e transmitted by him to the Bodleian Library at
Oxford. It was in 1844 that the late Eugene Burnouf published, after a
careful study of these documents, his classical work, 'Introduction a
l'Histoire du Buddhisme Indien,' and it is from this book that our
knowledge of Buddhism may be said to date. Several works have since
been published, which have added considerably to the stock of
authentic information on the doctrine of the great Indian reformer.
There is Burnouf's translation of 'Le Lotus de la bonne Loi,'
published after the death of that lamented scholar, together with
numerous essays, in 1852. There are two interesting works by the Rev.
Spence Hardy--'Eastern Monachism,' London, 1850, and 'A Manual of
Buddhism,' London, 1853; and there are the publications of M.
Stanislas Julien, E. Foucaux, the Honourable George Turnour, Professor
H. H. Wilson, and others, alluded to in my article on the 'Buddhist
Pilgrims.' It is from these works alone that we can derive correct and
authentic information on Buddhism, and not from Neander's 'History of
the Christian Church' or from Creuzer's 'Symbolik.'

If any one will consult these works, he will find that the discussions
on the true meaning of Nirva_n_a are not of modern date, and that, at
a very early period, different philosophical schools among the
Buddhists of India, and different teachers who spread the doctrine of
Buddhism abroad, propounded every conceivable opinion as to the
orthodox explanation of this term. Even in one and the same school we
find different parties maintaining different views on the meaning of
Nirva_n_a. There is the school of the Svabhavikas, which still exists
in Nepal. The Svabhavikas maintain that nothing exists but nature, or
rather substance, and that this substance exists by itself
(svabhavat), without a Creator or a Ruler. It exists, however, under
two forms: in the state of Prav_r_itti, as active, or in the state of
Nirv_r_itti, as passive. Human beings, who, like everything else,
exist svabhavat, 'by themselves,' are supposed to be capable of
arriving at Nirv_r_itti, or passiveness, which is nearly synonymous
with Nirva_n_a. But here the Svabhavikas branch off into two sects.
Some believe that Nirv_r_itti is repose, others that it is
annihilation; and the former add, 'were it even annihilation
(sunyata), it would still be good, man being otherwise doomed to an
eternal migration through all the forms of nature; the more desirable
of which a