In endeavouring to sketch in so limited a space even the most salient
features of the many-sided religion of Buddhism it is possible that here
and there I may have misrepresented it.
If so, I hope the fault will be attributed to inadvertence, or rather to
disadvantages under which I have worked. The sacred beliefs of any
section of mankind are entitled to receive at our hands not only justice
but kindly consideration, and a religion so vast and in some respects so
wonderful as Buddhism ought to have much to commend it to our sympathy.
Long and patient study of it has indeed greatly modified opinions
originally formed concerning it, but it has only tended to increase
respect for so earnest an effort of the intellect to solve the mystery
of human life and destiny. Even Christians may have something to learn
from Buddhists. The divers and seemingly antagonistic Churches of
Christendom help to educate and reform each other, and non-Christian
religions may perform a similar office to Christianity in bringing into
prominence some universal truths which its creeds have allowed to slip
into forgetfulness. Our perception and apprehension of what Christianity
really is will be all the clearer and firmer for an impartial study of
the system formulated so long ago by Gotama the Buddha.
The aim of the Lecture has not been to use the extravagances of Buddhism
as a foil to set off the excellencies of Christianity. That Christianity
as a religion is immensely superior to Buddhism goes without saying,
unless in the case of a very small and conceited and purblind minority.
I have tried by a fair exposition of what is best and highest in this
religion to discover its feeling after something better and higher
still, and to suggest rather than indicate the place which it occupies
in the religious education of humanity. As
“Man hath all which nature hath, but more,
And in that more lie all his hopes of good,”
so Christianity, while having in it in fuller measure and clearer form
every truth that has vivified any other religion, has in it, as the new
creation to which the long travail of the soul under every form of faith
has from the first been pointing, something peculiar and
contrasted—which is the Divine answer to all their aspirations. This we
do not need to demonstrate: indeed it may be a verity, as incapable of
demonstration as is that of the existence of Deity or the immortality of
the soul. It is sure eventually to be almost universally recognised, and
meanwhile, whether accepted or denied, we may say—_E pur si muove_.
* * * * *
Very gratefully would I acknowledge my profound obligations to all who
have instructed me in this subject. Though we no longer regard the
Saddharma-Pundarika and Lalita Vistara as good specimens of Buddhism, we
still venerate the great scholars who first introduced them to our
notice. The splendid productions of Burnouf, Foucaux, Köppen, Stanislas
Julien, Hodgson and Turnour; the excellent works of Spence Hardy,
Gogerly, Bigandet and H. H. Wilson, and, among the best of all, the
laborious and faithful Dictionary of Professor Childers, though several
of them are unfortunately out of print, are not likely to be soon out of
date. It is with pleasure that we find them so frequently quoted or
referred to by our latest and best authorities. Still, ever since
Professor Max Müller organised his truly catholic enterprise of the
translation of the Sacred Books of the East, he has brought us very
considerably nearer to real Buddhist teachers themselves. To praise the
scholarship of himself, and Oldenberg, and Rhys Davids, and Kern, and
Fausböll, and others of his _collaborateurs_, would be unwarrantable
presumption on my part; but as a humble disciple very willing to learn,
I am glad to have this opportunity of publicly expressing my
appreciation of the great services which in their editions of old
Eastern texts, and in these series of translations, they are rendering
to the cause of religion.
The lectures were drafted and in great part written before I read the
very valuable works of Sir Monier Williams on _Buddhism_ and of Dr.
Kellogg on the _Light of Asia and the Light of the World_. I specially
mention these books as likely to prove very useful guides to any one
desirous of prosecuting the subject of the present Lecture. In the notes
I have marked my indebtedness to them, and to many authors of what has
already become a great literature. Many others whose works have been of
service to me in a course of reading extending over many years are not
noted, simply because in the caprices of memory my peculiar obligations
to them could not at the time be recalled.
For in regard to Buddhism I do not profess to add any original
information to the stock already acquired. Others have extracted the ore
from these old and interesting fields, and minted it into gold and
silver. What has thus been rendered available many like myself can only
reduce into copper or bronze, but if only our work be faithfully done,
we may thus help in increasing the currency and in extending its
circulation. With this in view I accepted the honour which the Croall
Trustees conferred upon me in calling me to undertake this Lecture, and
if the only effect of my efforts be to stimulate other ministers of the
Church more advantageously situated to prosecute their researches to
much better purpose, no one will be more pleased than myself.