. He
was the great Light which revealed the way to eternal repose--Nirvana.
The mythical Buddha was the prototype of the mythical Christ. His mother
was Mai or Mary, Queen of Heaven, or the Vernal Spring. He was a new
incarnation of the Sun--the Savior of the world. In process of time his
many miracles were offered as proof of his divine character. Although he
taught the existence of a great and universal Power, he made no attempt
to explain the unknowable. The Infinite is to be contemplated only
through its manifestations. Nirvana is not annihilation, as has been
erroneously taught by Christian missionaries. As explained by Buddhists
themselves, it comprehends a state of absolute rest from human strife
and wretchedness. It is the absorption or relapsing into the great First
Principle, whence all life is derived--a state so pure that the human is
lost in the divine.

"Lamp of the law!
I take my refuge in thy name and Thee!
I take my refuge in thy Law of Good!
I take my refuge in thy Order! Om!
The dew is on the Lotus!--rise, Great Sun!
And lift my leaf and mix me with the wave.
Om Mani Padme Hum, the Sunrise comes!
The Dewdrop slips into the shining Sea!"(122)

122) Arnold, Light of Asia.

From the Buddhist colleges at Nolanda went forth teachers who, inspired
with enthusiasm in the cause of human justice and individual liberty,
endeavored to abolish the abominations which had grown up under
Brahminical rule. The masses of the people, however, were too deeply
sunken in infamy, wretchedness, and ignorance to accept, or even
understand, the pure doctrines of the great teacher, and, as might have
been anticipated, priest-craft soon assumed its wonted arrogance, and
eventually the whole paraphernalia of antiquated dogmas were tacked upon
the new system.

Through the various efforts put forth for the elevation of mankind
during the six or seven hundred years which preceded the advent of
Christianity, sufficient strength had been given to the moral impetus of
humanity to create in many portions of the world a strong desire for a
return to purer principles, and to make the appearance of a spiritual
teacher like Christ possible. The effects, however, of ages of moral
and intellectual degradation, in which the lowest faculties have been
stimulated to the highest degree, are not wiped out in a few centuries
of struggle by the few among the people who desire reform. As
true reform me