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BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM.
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Another essential difference between Brahmanism and Buddhism, was the proselyting spirit of the latter. Although Brahmanism has spread into countries where it could not have been indigenous, yet a Brahman, like a poet, "nascitur non fit;" and, consistent with the spirit of the code, a man must be born a Hindu, he cannot become a Hindu by conversion. The Buddhist adopted the opposite course, and hence, no doubt, their early success. The public teaching of Buddha or of the founders of the faith must have been so novel and attractive, that we can easily believe the Buddhist narratives, that vast multitudes of all classes and of both sexes attended the public preaching of the Buddhist missionaries, an encouraging precedent we may observe, by the way, for those of pure religion. There are, however, some peculiar features in the teaching of Sákya and his disciples, which render it more surprising that it should ever have been successful than that its success should have been of temporary duration. Its object is not the good of the people in their social condition: it no doubt enjoins the observance of moral duties, and reverence to parents and teachers, and the general practice of compassion and benevolence, but to whom are these injunctions addressed? according to the authorities of the religion, whether Sanskrit or Páli, to Bhikshus and Bhikshunís, persons who have separated themselves from the world, and who, besides professing faith in Buddha, engage to lead a life of self-denial, celibacy, and mendicancy, and to estrange
