< O .^^\ -^0 '^^ "oV 'bV^ >P^^. 4 o • --^..^^ *^^» \/ .*^'- %. * ■«. ^' '^^ '^<^ /\v;^'X /.'^>°- >*\.i^^/% V THE DAWN AND THE DAY OR THE BUDDHA AND THE CHRIST PART I HENRY tI^ILES SEP 28 1B94 1894 ^^-^^ -^^ ^-^^,.K^^ Copyrig-ht, 1894, Bv Henry T. Niles. All rig-hts reserved. THE BLADE PRINTING & PAPER COMPA TOLEDO, OHIO PREFACE. When Humboldt first ascended the Andes and saw the trees, shrubs and flora he had long: before studied on the Alps, he had only to look at his ba- rometer, or at the sea of mountains and hills below, the rocks and soil around, and the sun above, to un- derstand this seeming- marvel of creation ; while those who knew less of the laws of order and uni- versal harmony mig-ht be lost in conjectures about pollen floating: in the upper air, or seeds carried by birds across seas, forgetting- that preservation is perpetual creation, and that it takes no more power to clothe a mountain just risen from the sea in ap- propriate verdure than to renew the beauty and the bloom of spring. ^ Max Mueller, who looks through antiquity with the same clear vision with which Humboldt ex- amined the physical world, when he found the most ancient Hindoos bowing in worship before Dyaus ^itar, the exact equivalent of the Zeus Pater of the ireeksand the Jupiter of the Romans, and of "Our Father who art in the heavens" in our own divinely tauo-ht prayer, instead of indulging in wild specu- lations about the chance belief of some ancient viii Preface. chief or patriarch, transmitted across continents and seas and even across the g-reat g-ulf that has always divided the Aryan from the Semitic civiliza- tion and preserved through ag-es of darkness and unbelief, saw in it the common yearning- of the hu- man soul to find rest on a loving- Father's almig-hty arm ; 3^et when our oriental missionaries and scholars found such fundamental truths of their own relig-ion as the common brotherhood of man, and that love is the vital force of all religion, which consists not in blood-oblations or in forms and creeds, but in shunning- evil and doing good, and that we must overcome evil by good and hatred by love, and that there is a spiritual world and life after death embodied in the teachings of Buddha — instead of finding in this great fact new proof of the common Father's love for all His children, they immediately began to indulge in conjectures as to how these truths might have been derived from the early Christians who visited the East, while those who were disposed to reject the claims of Christian- ity have exhausted research and conjecture to find something looking as if Christianity itself might have been derived from the Buddhist missionaries to Palestine and Egypt, both overlooking the re- markable fact that it is only in fundamental truths that the two religions agree, while in the dogmas, legends, creeds and speculations which form the wall of separation between them they are as wide asunder as the poles. How comes it on the one theory that the Nesto- Preface. ix rians, whose peculiar creed had already separated them from the balance of the Christian church, taug-ht their Buddhist disciples no part of that creed to which they have adhered with such tenacity through the ages ? And on the other theory, how comes it, if the Divine Master was, as some modern writers claim, an Kssene, that is, a Buddhist monk, that there is not in all his teachings a trace of the speculations and legends which had already buried the fundamental truths of Buddhism almost out of sight ? How sad to bear a distinguished Christian scholar like Sir Monier Williams cautioning his readers against giving a Christian meaning to the Chris- tian expressions he constantly met with in Bud- dhism, and yet informing them that a learned and distinguished Japanese gentleman told him it was a source of great delight to him to find so many of his most cherished religious beliefs in the New Testament ; and to see an earnest Christian missionary like good Father Hue, when in the busy city of Lha-ssa, on the approach of evening, at the sound of a bell the whole population sunk on their knees in a concert of prayer, only finding in it an attempt of Satan to counterfeit Christian worship ; and on the other hand to see ancient and modern learning ransacked to prove that the brightest and clearest light that ever burst upon a sinful and be- nighted world was but the reflected rays of another faith. X Preface. And yet this same Sir Monier Williams says : " We shall not be far wrong- in attempting- an out- line of the Buddha's life if we beg-in by assuming- that intense individuality, fervid earnestness and severe simplicity, combined with sing-ular beauty of countenance, calm dig-nity of bearing-, and al- most superhuman persuasiveness of speech, were conspicuous in the g-reat teacher." To believe that such a character was the product of a false relig-ion, or that he was given over to believe a lie, savors too much of that worst ag-nosticism which would in effect deny the universality of God's love and would limit His care to some favored locality or ag-e or race. How much more in harmony with the broad phi- losophy of such men as Humboldt and Mueller, and with the character of a loving- Father, to believe that at all times and in all countries He has been watching- over all His children and g-iving- them all the light they were capable of receiving-. This narrow view is especially out of place in treating of Buddhism and Christianity, as Buddha himself predicted that his Dharma would last but five hundred years, when he would be succeeded by Matreya, that is, Love incarnate, on which account the whole Buddhist world was on tiptoe of expecta- tion at the time of the coming of our Lord, so that the wise men of the East were not only following their guiding-star but the prediction of their own great prophet in seeking Bethlehem. Preface. ^^ Had the Christian missionaries to the East left behind them their creeds, which have only served to divide Christians into hostile sects and some- times into hostile camps, and which so far as I can see after years of patient study, have no necessary connection' with thesimple. Hvin^ truths taught by our Saviour, and had taken only their New TesU- ments and their earnest desire to <^'> S^^'^^J^'J^ tory of missions would have been widely different How of the earth earthy seemed the walls that divided the delegates to the world's great Co«gress of Religions, recently held in Chicago, and how altogether divine The love which like an endless golden chain Joined all in one. Whatever others may think, it is my firm belief that Buddhism and Christianity, which we can- not doubt have influenced for good such vast masses Z human family, both descended from heaven clothed in robes of celestial purity ^^^^^^^"'Jf; come sadly stained by their contact ->;t1^ ^he e fish- nessof a sinful world, except for which belief the following pages would never have been written, IS are now sent forth in the hope that they may lo something to enable Buddhists and Christian to see eye to eye and something to promote peace and good-will among men. While following my own conceptions and even fancies in many things, I believe the leading char- xii Preface. acters and incidents to be historical, and I have given nothing- as the teaching* of the great mas- ter which was not to my mind clearly authenticated. To those who have read so much about agnostic Buddhism, and about Nirvana meaning annihila- tion, it may seem bold in me to present Buddha as an undoubting believer in the fundamental truths of all religion, and as not only a believer in a spirit- ual world but an actual visitor to its sad and bliss- ful scenes ; but the only agnosticism I have been able to trace to Buddha was a want of faith in the many ways invented through the ag-es to escape the consequences of sin and to avoid the necessity of personal purification, and the only annihilation he taught and yearned for was the annihilation of self in the highest Christian sense, and escape from that body of death from which the Apostle Paul so earnestly sought deliverance. Doubtless agnosticism and almost every form of belief and unbelief subsequently sprang up among- the intensely acute and speculative peoples of the East known under the g-eneral name of Buddhists, as they did among the less acute and speculative peoples of the West known as Christians ; but the one is no more primitive Buddhism than the other is primitive Christianity. While there are innumerable poetic legends — of which Spence Hardy's "Manual of Buddhism" is a great storehouse, and many of which are given by Arnold in his beautiful poem — strewn thick along Preface. xiii the track of Buddhist literature, constantl}' tempt- ing- one to leave the straig-ht path of the develop- ment of a great religion, I have carefulh^ avoided what did not commend itself to my mind as either historical or spiritual truth. It was my original design to follow the wonder- ful career of Buddha until his long" life closed with visions of the golden city much as described in Reve- lation, and then to follow that most wonderful career of Buddhist missions, not only through In- dia and Ceylon, but to Palestine, Greece and Kgypt, and over the table-lands of Asia and through the Chinese Empire to Japan, and thence by the black stream to Mexico and Central America, and then to follow the wise men of the East until the Lig"ht of the world dawned on them on the plains of Bethle- hem — a task but half accomplished, which I shall yet complete if life and strength are spared. A valued literary friend suggests that the social life described in the following- pages is too much like ours, but why should their daily life and social customs be greatly different from ours ? The Aryan mig-rations to India and to Europe were in large masses, of course taking their social customs, or as the Romans would say, their household g-ods, with them. What wonder, then, that the home as Tacitus de- scribes it in the "Wilds of Germany" was sub- stantialh^ what Mueller finds from the very struc- ture of the Sanscrit and European languag-es xiv Preface. it must have been in Bactria, the common cradle of the Aryan race. There can scarcely be a doubt that twenty-five hundred years ago the daily life and social customs in the north of India, which had been under undisputed Aryan control long- enough for the Sanscrit language to spring up, come to perfection and finally become obsolete, were more like ours than like those of modern India after the many — and especially the Mohammedan — con- quests and after centuries of oppression and alien rule. If a thousand English-speaking Aryans should now be placed on some distant island, how much would their social customs and even amusements differ from ours in a hundred years ? Only so far as changed climate and surroundings compelled. I give as an introduction an outline of the golden, silver, brazen and iron ages, as described by the ancient poets and believed in by all antiquity, as it was in the very depths of the darkness of the iron age that our great light appeared in Northern In- dia. The very denseness of the darkness of the age in which he came makes the clearness of the light more wonderful, and accounts for the joy with which it was received and the rapidity with which it spread. Not to enter into the niceties of chronological questions, the mission of Buddha may be roughly said to have commenced about five hundred years before the commencement of our era, and with in- Preface. xv cessant labors and long- and repeated journeys to have lasted forty-five years, when at about the ag-e of eighty he died, or, as the Buddhists more truth- fully and more beautifully say, entered Nirvana. Henry T. Nii^bs. Toledo, January 1, 1894. Since this work was in the hands of the printer I have read the recent work of Bishop Copelston, of Columbo, Ceylon, and it was a source of no small g-ratification to find him in all material points agreeing- with the result of my somewhat extensive investigations as given within, for in Ceylon, if anywhere, we would expect accuracy. Here the great Buddhist development first comes in contact with authentic history during the third cen- tury B. C. in the reign of the great Asoka, the dis- covery of whose rock inscriptions shed such a flood of light on primitive Buddhism, while it still re- tained enough of its primitive power, as we learn from those inscriptions themselves, to turn that monarch from a course of cruel tyranny, and, as we learn from the history of Ceylon, to induce his son and daughter to abandon royalty and become the first missionaries to that beautiful island. H. T. N. INTRODUCTION. The golden age - when men were brothers all. The golden rule their law and God their king ; When no tierce beasts did through the forests roam, Nor poisonous reptiles crawl upon the ground; When trees bore only wholesome, luscious fruits, And thornless roses breathed their sweet perfumes; When sickness, sin and sorrow were unknown. And tears but spoke of joy too deep for words ; When painless death but led to higher life, A life that knows no end, in that bright world Whence angels on the ladder Jacob saw, Descending, talk with man as friend to friend — That age of purity and peace had passed. But left a living memory behind, Cherished and handed down from sire to son Through all the scattered peoples of the earth, A living prophecy of what this world, This sad and sinful world, might yet become. 2 Introduction. The silver age — an age of faith, not sight — Came next, when reason ruled instead of love ; When men as through a glass but darkly saw What to their fathers clearly stood revealed In God's own light of love-illumined truth, Of which the sun that rising paints the east. And whose last rays with glory gild the west, Is but an outbirth. Then were temples reared. And priests 'mid clouds of incense sang His praise Who out of densest darkness called the light, And from His own unbounded fullness made The heavens and earth and all that in them is. Then landmarks were first set, lest men contend For God's free gifts, that all in peace had shared. Then laws were made to govern those whose sires Were laws unto themselves. Then sickness came, And grief and pain attended men from birth to death. But still a silver light lined every cloud. And hope was given to cheer and comfort men. The brazen age, brilliant but cold, succeeds. This was an age of knowledge, art and war. When the knights-errant of the ancient world. Adventures seeking, roamed with brazen swords Which by a wondrous art — then known, now lost — Were hard as flint, and edged to cut a hair Introduction. 3 Or cleave in twain a warrior armor-clad And armed with shields adorned by Vulcan's art, Wonder of coming times and theme for bards.* Then science searched through nature's heights and depths. Heaven's canopy thick set with stars was mapped, The constellations named, and all the laws searched out That guide their motions, rolling sphere on sphere.f Then men by reasonings piled up mountain high Thought to scale heaven, and to dethrone heaven's king, Whose imitators weak, with quips and quirks And ridicule would now destroy all sacred things. This age great Homer and old Hesiod sang. And gods they made of hero, artist, bard. At length this twilight of the ages fades, And starless night now sinks upon the world — An age of iron, cruel, dark and cold. On Asia first this outer darkness fell. Once seat of paradise, primordial peace. Perennial harmon}- and perfect love. A despot's will was then a nation's law ; * See Hesiod's description of the shield of Hercules, the St Georg-e of that ancient age of chivalry. t See the celebrated zodiac of Denderah, g-iven in Landseer's *' Sabaean Researches," and in Napoleon's " Egypt " 4 Introduction. An idol's car crushed out poor human lives, And human blood polluted many shrines. Then human speculation made of God A shoreless ocean, distant, waveless, vast, Of truth that sees not and unfeeling- love, Whence souls as drops were taken back to fall. Absorbed and lost, when, countless ages passed. They should complete their round as souls of men. Of beasts, of birds and of all creeping things. And, even worse, the cruel iron castes. One caste too holy for another's touch. Had every human aspiration crushed. The common brotherhood of man destroyed, And made all men but Pharisees or slaves. And worst of all — and what could e'en be worse ? — Woman, bone of man's bone, flesh of his flesh. The equal partner of a double life. Who in the world's best days stood by his side To lighten every care, and heighten every joy, And in the world's decline still clung to him. She only true when all beside were false. When all were cruel she alone still kind, Light of his hearth and mistress of his home, Sole spot where peace and joy could still be found — Woman herself cast down, despised was made Slave to man's luxury and brutal lust. Introduction. 5 Then war was rapine, havoc, needless blood, Infants impaled before their mothers' eyes. Women dishonored, mutilated, slain, Parents but spared to see their children die. Then peace was but a faithless, hollow truce, With plots and counter-plots ; the dagg-er's point And poisoned cup instead of open war ; And life a savag-e, grim conspiracy Of mutual murder, treachery and g-reed. O dark and cruel age ! O cruel creeds I O cruel men ! O crushed and bleeding- hearts. That from the very g-round in ang-uish cry : *' Is there no lig-ht — no hope — no help — no God?" C^t gafon anb i\z gag THE BUDDHA AND THE CHRIST. BOOK I Northward from Gang-es' stream and India's plains An ancient city crowned a lofty hill, Whose hig-h embattled walls had often rolled The surging-, ang-ry tide of battle back. Walled on three sides, but on the north a cliff, At once the city's quarry and its g-uard, Cut out in g-alleries, with vaulted roofs* Upborne upon cyclopean columns vast, Chiseled with art, their capitals adorned With lions, elephants, and bulls, life size. Once dedicate to many monstrous g-ods ♦ Lieutenant-General Brig^s. in his lectures on the aboriginal races of India, says the Hindoos themselves refer the excavation of caves and temples to the period of the aboriginal kings. (7) 8 The Dawn and the Day, or Before the Aryan race as victors came, Then prisons, g-ranaries and mag-azines, Now only known to bandits and wild beasts. This cliflf, extending- at each end, bends north, And rises in two mountain-chains that end In two vast snow-capped Himalayan peaks, Between which runs a g-littering- glacial stream, A mig-hty moving mass of crystal ice, Crushing the rocks in its resistless course ; From which bursts forth a river that had made Of all this valley one great highland lake, Which on one side had burst its bounds and cut In myriad years a channel through the rock. So narrow that a goat might almost leap From cliff to cliff — these cliffs so smooth and steep The eagles scarce could build upon their sides ; This yawning chasm so deep one scarce could hear The angry waters roaring far below. This stream, guided by art, now fed a lake Above the city and behind this cliff, Which, guided thence in channels through the rock, Fed many fountains, sending crystal streams Through every street and down the terraced hill, And through the plain in little silver streams. Spreading the richest verdure far and wide.* Here was the seat of King Suddhodana, His royal park, walled by eternal liills, *The art of irrigation, once practiced on such a mighty scale, now seems practically a lost art but just now being revived on our western plains. The Buddha and the Christ — Book I. 9 Where trees and shrubs and flowers all native g-rew ; For in its bounds all the four seasons met, From ever-laughing-, ever-blooming- spring- To savage winter with eternal snows. Here statel)^ palms, the banyan's many trunks, Darkening- whole acres with its g-rateful shade, And bamboo groves, with g-raceful waving- plumes. The champak, with its fragrant g-olden flowers, Asokas, one brig-ht blaze of brilliant bloom. The mohra, yielding- food and oil and wine. The sacred sandal and the spreading- oak, The mountain-loving- fir and spruce and pine, And giant cedars, grandest of them all. Planted in ages past, and thinned and pruned With that high art that hides all trace of art,* Were placed to please the eye and show their form In groves, in clumps, in jungles and alone. Here all a forest seemed ; there open groves. With vine-clad trees, vines hanging from each limb, A pendant chain of bloom, with shaded drives And walks, with rustic seats, cool grots and dells. With fountains playing and with babbling brooks. And stately swans sailing on little lakes. While peacocks, rainbow-tinted shrikes, pheasants, Glittering like precious stones, parrots, and birds Of all rich plumage, fly from tree to tree. The whole scene vocal with sweet varied song ; " And, that which all faire workes doth most aygrace, The art, which all that wroug-ht, appeared ia no place." —Faerie Queene, B. 2, Canlo 12. 10 The Dawn and the Day, or And here a widespread lawn bedecked with flowers. With clumps of brilliant roses g-rown to trees. And fields with dahlias spread,* not stiff and prim Like the starched ruffle of an ancient dame, But g-rowing in luxuriance rich and wild, The colors of the evening- and the rainbow joined, White, scarlet, yellow, crimson, deep maroon, Blending" all colors in one dazzling- blaze ; There orchards bend beneath their luscious loads; Here vineyards climb the hills thickset with grrapes; There rolling pastures spread, where vojslI mares. High bred, and colts too young- for bit or spur. Now quiet feed, then, as at trumpet's call. With lion bounds, tails floating, necks outstretched, f Nostrils distended, fleet as the flying- wind They skim the plain, and sweep in circles wide — Nature's Olympic, copied, ne'er excelled. Here, deer with dappled fawn bound o'er the grass, t And sacred herds, and sheep with skipping lambs ; There, great white elephants in quiet nooks ; While high on cliffs framed in with living green Goats climb and seem to hang and feed in air — Sweet spot, with all to please and nothing to offend. * See Miss Gordon Cummingr's descriptions of the fields of wild dahlias in Northern India. t By far the finest display of the mettle and blood of high-bred horses I have ever seen has been in the pasture-field, and this description is drawn from life t Once, coming upon a little prairie in the midst of a great forest, I saw a herd of startled deer bound over the grass, a scene never to be forg-otten. The Buddha and the Christ — Book I. 11 Here on a hill the royal palace stood, A g-em of art ; and near, another hill. Its top crowned by an ag"ed banyan tree, Its sides clad in strang-e jyotismati grass,* By day a sober brown, but in the night Glowing- as if the hill were all aflame — Twin wonders to the dwellers in the plain. Their guides and landmarks day and night, This glittering palace and this glowing hill. Within, above the palace rose a tower. Which memory knew but as the ancient tower, Foursquare and high, an altar and a shrine On its broad top, where burned perpetual fire, Emblem of boundless and eternal love And truth that knows no night, no cloud, no change. Long since gone out, with that most ancient faith In one great Father, source of life and light. t Still round this ancient tower, strange hopes and fears. And memories handed down from sire to son. Were clustered thick. An army, old men say, Once camped against the city, when strange lights Burst from this tower, blinding their dazzled eyes. They fled amazed, nor dared to look behind. The people bloody war and cruel bondage saw On every side, and they at peace and free. And thought a power to save dwelt in that tower. =^See Miss Gordon Cumming-'s description of a hill covered with thi» luminous grass. t There can be no doubt that the fire-worship of the East is the re- mains of a true but largely emblematic religion. 12 The DaWn and the Day, or And now strange prophecies and saying-s old Were everywhere rehearsed, that from this hill Should come a king- or savior of the world. Even the poor dwellers in the distant plain Looked up ; they too had heard that hence should come One quick to hear the poor and strong- to save. And who shall dare to chide their simple faith ? This humble reverence for the g-reat unknown Bring-s men near God, and opens unseen worlds, Whence comes all life, and where all power doth dwell. Morning- and evening- on this tower the king-, Before the rising- and the setting- sun, Blindly, but in his father's faith, bowed down. Then he would rise and on his king-dom gaze. East, west, hills beyond hills stretched far away, Wooded, terraced, or bleak and bald and bare. Till in dim distance all were leveled lost. One rich and varied carpet spread far south. Of fields, of g-roves, of bus}- cities wrought. With mighty rivers seeming silver threads ; And to the north the Himalayan chain. Peak beyond peak, a wall of crest and crag. Ice bound, snow capped, backed by intensest blue, Untrod, immense, that, like a crystal wall. In myriad varied tints the glorious light Of rising and of setting sun reflects ; His noble city lying at his feet. The Buddha and the Christ — Book I. 13 And his broad park, ting-ed by the sun's slant rays A thousand softly rich and varied shades. Still on this scene of g-randeur, plenty, peace And ever-varying- beauty, he would gaze With sadness. He had heard these prophecies, And felt the unrest in that g-reat world within, Hid from our blinded eyes, yet ever near, The very soul and life of this dead world. Which seers and prophets open-eyed have seen. On which the dying often raptured gaze, And where they live when they are mourned as dead. This world was now astir, foretelling day. " A king shall come, they say, to rule the world. If he will rule ; but whence this mig-hty king- ? My years decline apace, and yet no son Of mine to rule or lig-ht my funeral pile." One nig-ht Queen Maya, sleeping- by her lord. Dreamed a strange dream; she dreamed she saw a star Gliding from heaven and resting over her; She dreamed she heard strange music, soft and sweet. So distant "joy and peace" was all she heard. In joy and peace she wakes, and waits to know What this strang-e dream might mean, and whence it came. Drums, shells and trumpets sound for joy, not war; The streets are swept and sprinkled with perfumes. And myriad lamps shine from each house and tree. 14 The Dawn and the Day, or And myriad flag's flutter in every breeze, And children crowned with flowers dance in the streets, And all keep universal holiday With shows and games, and laug-h and dance and song-, For to the g-entle queen a son is born. To King- Suddhodana the g-ood an heir. But scarcely had these myriad lamps g-one out, The sounds of revelry had scarcely died. When coming- from the palace in hot haste, One cried, "Maya, the g-entle queen, is dead." Then mirth was changed to sadness, joy to grief, For all had learned to love the gentle queen — But at Siddartha's birth this was foretold. Among the strangers bringing gifts from far. There came an ancient sage — whence, no one knew — Age-bowed, head like the snow, eyes filmed and white. So deaf the thunder scarcely startled him. Who met them, as they said, three journeys back, And all his talk was. of a new-born king. Just born, to rule the world if he would rule. He was so gentle, seemed so wondrous wise, They followed him, he following, he said, A light they could not see ; and when encamped. Morn, noon and night devoutly would he pray. And then would talk for hours, as friend to friend, With questionings about this new-born king, The Buddha and the Christ— Book I. 15 Gazing intently at the tent's blank wall, With nods and smiles, as if he saw and heard, While they sit lost in wonder, as one sits Who never saw a telephone, but hears Unanswered questions, laughter at unheard jests, And sees one bid a little box g-ood-by. And when they came before the king, they saw. Laughing and cooing on its mother's knee. Picture of innocence, a sweet young child ; He saw a mighty prophet, and bowed down Kight times in reverence to the very ground. And rising said, " Thrice happy house, all hail ! This child would rule the world, if he would rule. But he, too good to rule, is born to save; But Maya's work is done, the devas wait." But when they sought for him, the sage was gone, Whence come or whither gone none ever knew. Then gentle Maya understood her dream. The music nearer, clearer sounds ; she sleeps. But when the funeral pile was raised for her, Of aloe, sandal, and all fragrant woods. And decked with flowers and rich with rare per- fumes. And when the queen was gently laid thereon, As in sweet sleep, and the pile set aflame, The king cried out in anguish ; when the sage Again appeared, and gently said, " Weep not I Se'^ek not, O king, the living with the dead ! 'Tis but her cast-off garment, not herself, That now dissolves in air. Thy loved one lives, 16 The Dawn and the I)ay. or Become thy deva,* who was erst thy queen.'* This said, he vanished, and was no more seen. Now other hands take up that mother's task. Another breast nurses that sweet young" child With g-rowing- love ; for who can nurse a child. Feel its warm breath, and little dimpled hands. Kiss its soft lips, look in its laug-liing- eyes. Hear its low-cooing- love-notes soft and sweet, And not feel something" of that miracle, A mother's love — so old yet ever new, Strong-er than death, bravest among- the brave, Gentle as brave, watchful both nig"ht and day. That never chang"es, never tires nor sleeps. Whence comes this wondrous and undying- love ? Whence can it come, unless it comes from heaven, Whose life is love — eternal, perfect love ! From babe to boy, from boy to youth he grew. But more in grace and knowledg"e than in years. At play his joyous laug"h rang" loud and clear. His foot was fleetest in all boyish g-ames. And strong- his arm, and steady nerve and eye. To whirl the quoit and send the arrow home; Yet seeming- oft to strive, he'd check his speed And miss his mark to let a comrade win. In fullness of young- life he climbed the cliffs Where human foot had never trod before. He led the chase, but when soft-eyed g-azelles * The difference between the Buddhist idea of a deva and the Christian idea of an attendant ang-el is scarcely perceptible. The Buddha and the Christ— Book I. 17 Or bounding- deer, or any harmless thing, Came in the rang-e of his unerring- dart, He let them pass ; for why, thoug-ht he, should men In wantonness make war on innocence ? One day the Prince Siddartha saw the g-rooms Gathered about a stallion, snowy white, Descended from that great Nisaean stock His fathers brought from Iran's distant plain, Named Kantaka. Some held him fast with chains Till one could mount. He, like a lion snared. Frantic with rage and fear, did fiercely bound. They cut his tender mouth with bloody bit. Beating his foaming sides until the Prince, Sterner than was his wont, bade them desist. While he spoke soothingly, patted his head And stroked his neck, and dropped those galling chains. When Kantaka's fierce flaming eyes grew mild, He quiet stood, by gentleness subdued- Such mighty power hath gentleness and love— And from that day no horse so strong and fleet, So kind and true, easy to check and guide. As Kantaka, Siddartha's noble steed. To playmates he was gentle as a girl ; Yet should the strong presume upon their strength To overbear or wrong those weaker than them- selves. His sturdy arm and steady eye checked them, And he would gently say, "Brother, not so ; 18 The Dawn and the Day, or Our streng-th was or-iven to aid and not oppress. " For in an ancient book he found a truth — A book no long-er read, a truth forg-ot, Entombed in iron castes, and buried deep In speculations and in subtle creeds — That men, hig-h, low, rich, poor, are brothers all,* Which, pondered much m his heart's fruitful soil. Had taken root as a g^reat living- truth That to a mig-hty doctrine soon would g^row, A mig-ht}^ tree to heal the nations with its leaves — Like some small grain of wheat, appearing- dead, In mummy-case three thousand years ag-of Securely wrapped and sunk in Eg'ypt's tombs, Themselves buried beneath the desert sands. Which now broug-ht forth, and planted in fresh soil, And watered by the dews and rains of heaven. Shoots up and yields a hundred-fold of g"rain. Until in g-olden harvests now it waves On myriad acres, many thousand miles From where the sing-le ancient seed had g-rown. Thus he grew up with all that heart could wish Or power command ; his very life itself, So fresh and young, sound body with sound mind, The living fountain of perpetual joy. Yet he would often sit and sadly think Sad thoughts and deep, and far beyond his years ; * The Brahmans claim that Buddha's great doctrine of universal brotherhood was taken from their sacred books and was not an original- ity of Buddha, as his followers claim. tThe Mediterranean or Egyptian wheat is said to have this origin. The Buddha and the Christ— Book I. 19 How sorrow filled the world; how thing's were shared — One born to waste, another born to want ; One for life's cream, others to drain its dreg-s ; One born a master, others abject slaves. And when he asked his masters to explain, When all were brothers, how such thing-s could be, They g-ave him speculations, fables old. How Brahm first Brahmans made to think for all, And then Kshatriyas, warriors from their birth. Then Sudras, to draw water and hew wood. *' But why should one for others think, when all Must answer for themselves? Why brothers- fight? And why one born another's slave, when all Might serve and help each other?" he would ask. But they could only answer : " Never doubt, For so the holy Brahmans always taught."^ Still he must think, and as he thought he sighed. Not for his petty g-riefs that last an hour. But for the bitter sorrows of the world That crush all men, and last from age to ag-e. The good old king saw this—saw that the prince. The apple of his eye, dearer than life. Stately in form, supple and strong in limb, Quick to learn every art of peace and war. Displaying and excelling every grace And attribute of his most royal line. Whom all would follow whereso'er he led. So fit to rule the world if he would rule, Thought less of ruling than of saving men. 20 The Dawn and the Day, or He saw the g-lory of his ancient house Suspended on an if — if he will rule The empire of the world, and power to crush Those cruel, bloody king's who curse mankind, And power to make a universal peace ; If not this hig-h career, with g-lory crowned, Then seeking truth through folly's devious ways ; By self-inflicted torture seeking bliss, And by self-murder seeking higher life ; On one foot standing till the other pme, Arms stretched aloft, fingers g-rown bloodless claws, Or else, impaled on spikes, with festering- sores Covered from head to foot, the body wastes With constant anguish and with slow decay.* '' Can this be wisdom ? Can such a life be g-ood That shuns all duties lying- in our path — Useless to others, filled with grief and pain ? Not so my father's g-od teaches to live. Rising each morning- most exact in time, He bathes the earth and sky with rosy lig-ht And fills all nature with new life and joy ; The cock's shrill clarion calls us to awake And breathe this life and hear the bursts of song- That fill each g-rove, inhale the rich perfume Of opening- flowers, and work while day shall last. Then rising- hig-her, he warms each dank, cold spot, =•"■ At the time of Buddha's birth there seemed to be no mean between the Chakravartin or absolute monarch and the recluse who had re- nounced all ordinary duties and enjoyments, and was subjecting him- self to all deprivations and suffering's. Buddha taught the middle course of diligence in daily duties and universal love. The Buddha and the Christ — Book I. 21 Dispels the sickening- vapors, clothes the fields With waving- grain, the trees with g-olden fruit, The vines with grapes ; and when 'tis time for rest, Sinks in the west, and with new g-lory g-ilds The mountain-tops, the clouds and western sky, And calls all nature to refreshing- sleep. If he be God, the useful are like God ; If not, God made the sun, who made all men And by his g-reat example teaches them The dilig-ent are wise, the useful g-ood." Sorely perplexed he called his counselors. Grown g-ray in serving- their beloved king-. And said : " Friends of my youth, manhood and age. So wise in counsel and so brave in war. Who never failed in danger or distress. Oppressed with fear, I come to you for aid. You know the prophecies, that from my house Shall come a king, or savior of the world. You saw strange signs precede Siddartha's birth, And saw the ancient sage whom no one knew Fall down before the prince, and hail my house. You heard him tell the queen she soon would die, And saw her sink in death as in sweet sleep; You laid her gently on her funeral pile. And heard my cry of anguish, when the sage Again appeared and bade me not to weep For her as dead who lived and loved me still. We saw the prince grow up to man's estate, So strong and full of manliness and grace, 22 The Dawn and the Day, or And wise beyond his teachers and his years, And thoug-ht in him the prophecies fulfilled, And that with g-lory he would rule the world And bless all men with universal peace. But now dark shadows fall athwart our hopes. Often in sleep the prince will start and cry As if in pain, ' O world, sad world, I come !' But roused, he'll sometimes sit the livelong day, Forg-etting- teachers, sports and even food. As if with dreadful visions overwhelmed, Or buried in g-reat thoug-hts profound and deep. But yet to see our people, riding- forth. To their acclaims he answers with such g-race And g-entle stateliness, my heart would swell As I would hear the people to each other say : * Who ever saw such g-race and g-randeur joined T Yet while he answers g-ladness with like joy. His eyes seem searching- for the sick and old, The poor, and maimed, and blind — all forms of grief. And oft he'd say, tears streaming- from his eyes,* *Let us return ; my heart can bear no more.' * I am aware thai some Buddhist authors whom Arnold has fol- lowed in his " Ligrht of Asia" make Buddha but little better than a state prisoner, and would have us believe that the g-iimpses he g-ot of the ills that flesh is heir to were gained in spite of all precautions, as he was occasionally takeu out of his rose embowered, damsel filled prison- house, and not as any prince of high intelligence and tender sensibili- ties who loved his people and mingled freely with them would gain a knowledge of suffering- and sorrow ; but we are justified in passing all snch fancies, not only on account of their intrinsic improbability, but because the g-reat Asvaghosha, who wrote about the beginning of our era, knew nothing of them. The Buddha and the Christ — B