And he released first the eye, and then the voice,
Of brazen-mitred Castor.

One reward of labors is sweet to one man, one to another, To the shepherd, and the plougher, and the bird-catcher, And whom the sea nourishes.

But every one is tasked to ward off

Grievous famine from the stomach.

-9.

ISTH. II. —

The Venality of the Muse..

Then the Muse was not

Fond of gain, nor a laboring woman;

Nor were the sweet-sounding

Soothing strains

Of Terpsichore, sold,

With silvered front.

But now she directs to observe the saying

Of the Argive, coming very near the truth,
Who cried," Money, money, man,"

Being bereft of property and friends.

Hercules' Prayer concerning Ajax, son of Telamon.

If ever, O father Zeus, thou hast heard

My supplication with willing mind,
Now I beseech thee with prophetic
Prayer, grant a bold son from Eriboa
To this man my fated guest;

Rugged in body

As the hide of this wild beast

Which now surrounds me, which, first of all

My contests, I slew once in Nemea, and let his mind agree.

To him thus having spoken, Heaven sent

A great eagle, king of birds,

And sweet joy thrilled him inwardly.

THE PREACHING OF BUDDHA.

The following fragments are extracts from one of the religious books of the Buddhists of Nepal, entitled the

"WHITE LOTUS OF THE GOOD LAW."

THE original work, which is written in Sanscrit, makes part of the numerous collection of Buddhist books, discovered by M. Hodgson, the English resident at the Court of Katmandou, and sent by him to the Asiatic Society of Paris M. Burnouf examined, some years since, this collection, which includes a great part of the canonical books of the Buddhists, and of which translations are found in all the nations which are Buddhists, (the people of Thibet, China, and the Moguls.) The book, from which the following extracts are taken, is one of the most venerated, by all the nations which worship Buddha, and shows very clearly the method followed by the Sage who bears this name. The work is in prose and verse. The versified part is only the reproduction in a metrical rather than a poetical form of the part written in prose. We prefix an extract from the article of M. Eugene Burnouf, on the ori gin of Buddhism.

"The privileged caste of the Brahmins reserved to itself the exclusive monopoly of science and of religion; their morals were relaxed; ignorance, cupidity, and the crimes which it induces, had already deeply changed the ancient society described in the Laws of Menu. In the midst of these disorders, (about six centuries before Christ,) in the north of Bengal, a young Prince born into the military caste, renounced the throne, became a religious, and took the name of Buddha. His doctrine, which was more moral than metaphysical, at least in its principle, reposed on an opinion admitted as a fact, and upon a hope presented as a cer tainty. This opinion is, that the visible world is in a perpetual change; that death proceeds to life, and life to death; that man, like all the living beings who surround him, revolves in the eternally moving circle of transmigration; that he passes successively through all the forms of life, from the most elementary up to the most perfect; that the place, which he occupies in the vast scale of living beings, depends on the merit of the actions which he performs in this world, and that thus the virtuous man ought, after this life, to be born again with a divine body, and the guilty with a body accursed; that the rewards of heaven and the pains of hell, like all which this world contains, have only a limited duration; that time exhausts the merit of virtuous actions, and effaces the evil of bad ones; and that the fatal law of change brings back to the earth both the god and the devil, to put both again on trial, and cause them to run a new course of transmigration. The hope, which the Buddha came to bring to men, was the possibility of escaping from the law of transmigration by entering that which he calls enfranchisement; that is to say, according to one of the oldest schools, the annihilation of the thinking principle as well as of the material principle. That annihilation was not entire until death; but he who was destined to attain to it, possessed during his life an unlimited science, which gave him the pure view of the world as it is, that is, the knowledge of the physical and intellectual laws, and the practice of the six transcendant perfections, of alms, of morality, of science, of energy, of patience, and of charity. The authority, on which the votary rested his teaching, was wholly personal; it was formed of two

elements, one real, the other ideal. The one was regularity and sanctity of conduct, of which chastity and patience formed the principal traits. The second was the pretension that he had to be Buddha, that is, illumi. nated, and as such, to possess a supernatural power and science. With his power he resisted the attacks of vice; with his science he represented to himself, under a clear and complete form, the past and the future. Hence he could recount all which he had done in his former existences, and he affirmed thus, that an incalculable number of beings had already attained, like himself, by the practice of the same virtues, to the dignity of Buddha. He offered himself, in short, to men as their Saviour, and he promised them that his death should not destroy his doctrine, but that this doctrine should endure after him for many ages, and that when its salutary action should have ceased, there would appear to the world a new Buddha, whom he would announce by his own name; and the legends say that before descending on earth, he had been consecrated in Heaven in the quality of the future Buddha.

The philosophic opinion, by which he justified his mission, was shared by all classes, Brahmins, warriors, farmers, merchants, all believed equally in the fatality of transmigration, in the retribution of rewards and pains, in the necessity of escaping in a decisive manner the perpetually changing condition of a merely relative existence. He believed in the truths admitted by the Brahmins. His disciples lived like them, and like them imposed stern penances, bending under that ancient sentence of reprobation fulminated against the body by oriental asceticisin. It does not appear that Buddha laid any claim himself to miraculous power. In fact, in one of his discourses, occur these remarkable words. A king urged him to confound his adversaries by the exhibition of that superhuman force, which is made to reduce incredulity to silence: O king!' replied the Buddha, "I do not teach the law to my disciples by saying to them, Go work miracles before the Brahmins and the masters of houses whom you meet, but I teach them in this wise, Live, O holy one, by concealing your good works, and by exposing your sins." This profound humility, this entire renunciation is the characteristic trait of primitive Buddhism, and was one of the most powerful instruments of its success with the people."

THE Tathagata is equal and not unequal towards all beings, when it is the question to convert them: "He is, O Kaçyapa, as the rays of the sun and moon, which shine alike upon the virtuous and the wicked, the high and the low; on those who have a good odor, and those who have a bad; on all these the rays fall equally and not unequally at one and the same time. So, O Kaçyapa, the rays of intelligence, endowed with the knowledge of omnipotence, make the Tathagatas venerable. Complete instruction in the good law is equally necessary for all beings, for those who have

*Tathagata_means, he who has come like Anterior Buddha, and is synonymous with Buddha,

Kaçyapa was of the Brahminical caste, one of the first disciples of Buddha.

entered into the five roads of existence, for those, who according to their inclination have taken the great vehicle, or the vehicle of Pratyeka-Buddha,* or that of the auditors. And there is neither diminution or augmentation of absolute wisdom in such or such a Tathagata. On the contrary, all equally exist, and are equally born to unite science and virtue. There are not, O Kaçyapa three vehicles; there are only beings who act differently from each other; it is on account of that we discriminate three vehicles.'

This said, the respectable Kâçyapa spoke thus to Bhagavat: "If there are not, O Bhagavat! three different vehicles, why employ in the present world the distinct denominations of Auditors, Pratyēkabuddhas and Bodhisattvas?" This said, Bhagavat spoke thus to the respectable Kaçyapa: "It is, O Kaçyapa, as when a potter makes different pots of the same clay. Some become vases to contain molasses, others are for clarified butter, others for milk, others for curds, others inferior and impure vases. The variety does not belong to the clay, it is only the difference of the substance that we put in them, whence comes the diversity of the vases. So there is really only one vehicle, which is the vehicle of Buddha; there is no second, no third vehicle." This said, the respectable Kaçyapa spoke thus to Bhagavat: "If beings, arising from this union of three worlds, have different inclinations, is there for them a single annihilation, or two, or three?" Bhagavat said, "Annihilation, O Kaçyapa, results from the comprehension of the equality of all laws; there is only one, and not two or three. Therefore, O Kaçyapa, I will propose to thee a parable; for penetrating men know through parables the sense of what is said."

Pratyeka-Buddhas is a kind of selfish Buddha, who possesses science without endeavoring to spread it, for the sake of saving others. The great vehicle, is a figurative expression, designating the state of Buddha, which is the first of the three means that the Buddhist doctrine furnishes to man, whereby to escape the conditions of actual existence.

Bhagavat means he who is perfect in virtue and happiness, and is the most honorary title applied to Buddha.

The Bodhisattva is a potential Buddha, a Buddha not yet completely developed, but sure of being so, when he shall have finished his last mortal existence.

"It is as if, O Kaçyapa, a man born blind should say, there are no forms, of which some have beautiful and some ugly colors; no spectators of these different forms; there is no sun, nor moon, nor constellations, nor stars; and no spectators who see stars.' And when other men reply to the man born blind, there are diversities of color and spectators of these diverse colors; there is a sun and a moon, and constellations and stars, and spectators who see the stars, the man born blind believes them not, and wishes to have no relations with them. Then there comes a physician who knows all maladies; he looks on this man born blind, and this reflection comes into his mind: it is for the guilty conduct of this man in an anterior life, that he is born blind. All the maladies which appear in this world, whatever they are, are in four classes; those produced by wind, those produced by bile, those produced by phlegm, and those which come by the morbid state of the three principles united. This physician reflected much upon the means of curing this malady, and this reflection came into his mind: the substances which are in use here, are not capable of destroying this evil; but there exist in Himavat, king of mountains, four medicinal plants, and what are they? The first is named that which possesses all savors and all colors; the second, that which delivers from all maladies; the third, that which neutralizes all poisons; the fourth, that which procures well-being in whatsoever situation it may be. These are the four medicinal plants. Then the physician, feeling touched with compassion for the man born blind, thought on the means of going to Himavat, king of mountains, and having gone thither, he mounted to the summit, he descended into the valley, he traversed the mountain in his search, and having sought he discovered these four medicinal plants, and having discovered them, he gave them to the blind man to take, one after having masticated it with the teeth, another after having pounded it, this after having cooked it with other substances, that after mingling it with other raw substances, another by introducing it into a given part of the body with a needle, another after having consumed it in the fire, the last, after having employed it, mingled with other substances as food or as drink.

Then the man born blind, in consequence of having em