Page:On the Fourfold Root, and On the Will in Nature.djvu/398

 THE WILL IN NATURE.

souls are universally adopted, are accused of Atheism." In the Asiatic Researches (vol. vi. p. 255) we find: "The religion of the Burmese (Buddhism) shows them to be a nation far advanced beyond the barbarism of a wild state and greatly influenced by religious opinions, but which nevertheless has no knowledge of a Supreme Being, Creator and Preserver of the world. Yet the system of morality recommended in their fables is perhaps as good as any other taught by the religious doctrines which prevail among mankind." And again, p. 258: "The followers of Gotama (i.e. of Buddha) are, strictly speaking, Atheists." Ibid., p. 258: "Gotama's sect consider the belief in a divine Being, Creator of the world, to be highly irreligious (impious)." Ibid., p. 268, Buchanan relates, that Atuli, the Zarado or High-Priest of the Buddhists at Ava, in an article upon his religion which he presented to a Catholic bishop, "counted the doctrine, that there is a Being who has created the world and all things in it and is alone worthy of adoration, among the six damnable heresies." Sangermano relates precisely the same thing, 1 and closes the list of the six grave heresies with the words: "The last of these impostors taught, that there is a Supreme Being, the Creator of the world and of all things in it, and that he alone is worthy of adoration." Colebrooke too says: 2 " The sects of Jaina and Buddha are really atheistic, for they acknowledge no Creator of the world, nor any Supreme ruling Providence." I. J. Schmidt 3 likewise says: "The system of Buddhism knows no eternal, uncreated, single, divine Being, having existed before all Time, who has created all that is visible and invisible.

1 Description of the Burman Empire, Rome, 1833, p. 81.

2 Colebrooke, Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. i. and Essay on the Philosophy of the Hindoos, published also among his Miscellaneous Essays, p. 236.

3 Investigations concerning the Mongols and Tibetans, p. 180.

SINOLOGY.