_The Funeral of a Siamese Prince_.--A nephew of the King has died, and
his funeral sermon is being preached by another royal Prince, who is
also a monk, and who is true to type and to the orthodox Buddhism of
his race. "As kinsmen welcome kinsmen returning after long sojourn in
far countries, so do good deeds welcome the good as they enter the
other world. And what are good deeds, but the unselfish effort to
advance the good of others? All must be left behind as we enter the
Gate of Death; but as a shadow follows the body so do purity and
simplicity of heart and deed steal after us, and minister to us in
that world beyond. As a flame is our mortal life, and if there be no
fuel it burns no more. We know not when it may die down, for all that
has a beginning has also an end, and transient are all things. And as
we may take with us only virtue, shall we not cherish and ensue it?"
We are reminded of the picture by G. F. Watts, "_Sic Transit Gloria
Mundi_," in which another prince is seen upon the bier, his crown, his
books, his winecup laid aside; and over his bier are the words, "What
I spent I had, what I had I lost, what I gave I have." It is sound
Buddhism, and every word of this sermon of the royal monk is drawn
from the _Dhammapada_, accepted in all Buddhist lands as the very
words of the Buddha, himself the prototype of a long line of kings and
princes in many lands, who have been proud to wear the Yellow Robe.