Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/236

210 are expressed in the Chinese character, and rehearsed by the worshippers, without their understanding a single word. The following is a specimen:—

This form is as unintelligible to the Chinese as it is to the English reader. A very few of the priests, only, understand it: and yet it is supposed efficacious in removing all evil. The books of Buddha affirm, that the god, O-me-to, rests on the head of those who repeat this prayer. When a person has repeated it 200,000 times, the intelligence of the deity begins to bud within him: when he has repeated it 300,000 times, he is at no great distance from a personal vision of the god O-me-to. During the dynasty Tsin, they say that a teacher of the name of Yuen, whilst repeating this prayer, saw a divine person from the west, holding in his hand a silver throne, who addressed him, saying, "Celebrated teacher! thy days are ended; ascend this throne, and be carried to yonder region of exquisite delights." The people in the neighbourhood heard the sound of harmonious music in the air, and a marvellous fragrance was diffused all around.

The Buddhists talk a great deal about compassion, and insist on its display by all their votaries: but their kindness is only manifested towards brutes and ghosts; while the miserable amongst men are left to starve. They consider it an act of merit to rescue animals from the butcher's knife and the cook's caldron, keeping in the temples a number of fat hogs, and lazy dogs, who