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For, whether the opinions which you have been explaining, about the being of the world, and the probability or certainty of a Deity, and the expectation of endless bliss, are held most correctly by you or by others, you at least observe that they relate to matters far removed from our daily experience; and therefore doubts of this kind may arise : if there be a state of happiness in another world, can any one either describe it to us or shew us the way there, who has not himself come from thence ; or whether the deepest guesses of the wisest men may not be as far frt)m the reality as the dreams of an infant: and again, taking only the possibility of there being a Supreme Being somewhat more energetic than you conceive, whether any but Himself can teach us His willso distinctly as to save us from all danger of being like servants who run on their master's errand without having heard his orders; so that, on the whole, we rather require in a teacher of religion some credentials different from those which might justify us in trusting ourselves to the hands of a physician or a lawyer." Saug. " But do not you, then, allow miracles to be creden- tials sufficient even for a teacher of a new religion ?" MIRACLES NOT FREQUENT. 29 Blan. "Yon mean by miracles works greater than any human being ordinarily can perform, and somewhat out of the common processes of nature, so as to raise a probability of some higher power being concerned in them than either Nature or Man?" Saug. "That description will suit my meaning tolerably weU." Blan. "But then of course it occurs to you that such things are rare, and must continue to be rare, or else they would no longer deserve the description which we have given of them." Saug. " Perhaps so." Blan. " But have you quite determined in your own mind that for miracles to be rare, unusual, and not of every-day occur- rence, is quite essential to their definition?" Saug. "If you please, I have no objection; though it would appear to me difficult to prove that divine teaching ought to be rare, rather than firequent." Blan. " Then I am afraid this point about miracles being rare is one to which we ought to return hereafter. But it surprises me the more that you should not think so, because your conception of the Deity represents Him as less concerned in the affairs of this lower world than other wise men have believed. Upon your system, then, I should have imagined miracles ought to be rarer than they need be upon ours, since we believe that the Almighty cares for mankind." Saug. " But then are you not forgetting that I have all along admitted the existence of intelligence, as a thing superior to brute matter ; and it is clear that both Sdkya and all others among the supreme Buddhas, as also the Bodisatwas, or what- ever other beings of kindred perfection may exist, undoubtedly partake of high degrees of intelligence ; it is, therefore, nothing incredible, if, in their indefatigable struggles upward, they have severally mastered the lower power of existing things, just as you would admit that thought controls matter — least of all 30 BAUDDHA DEVELOPMENT. should this be doubted^ when the most perfect teachers have hj their tremendous austerities given abundant proof of their triumph over whatever meaner things obstruct the fulness of our intelligence." Blan. "What you now say enables me to understand rather better both what you mean by miracles, and in what sense your religion generally ought to be considered either a revelation or a philosophy. It does not seem to be a self-un- covering of a power above, and distinct from nature ; so that it is not a revelation in our sense ; nor, again, is it a mere dis- covery by one supposed not to partake at least a sort of kindred to the Highest Intelligence ; but it is a sort of up-growth or development of that intelligent principle which you conceive to reside in the world of nature, until, purifying itself as it rises, and approaching nearer to that perfection to which it is essentially akin, it both acquires freedom for itself, and also power, either over the lower world, or to instruct mankind. Some such development of intelligence you appear to conceive was em- bodied in Sdkya. But now, I suppose, you believe that in pro- portion to the great excellence of Sdkya as a teacher, his works also were wonderftil?" Saug. " Certainly, I do." Blan. "Well then, in exact proportion as anything is wonderfril, it may also be considered less likely to happen, or at least to require more distinct and ample testimony. No one, for instance, wonders either at the daily recurrence of sunrise, or of the ocean tides, or of any other of the great and normal revolu- tions of nature; and therefore no one requires proof of any one of them having occurred. Whereas an eclipse, or an earthquake, which are somewhat rarer, though still in the natural order of things, we require to be informed of by some one well conversant with such matters, before we expect either of them to happen ; and as for the monsoons, which blow here, having their course altogether inverted, or as to men moving through the air upon burning carpets, it would require many testimonies from persona TESTS REQUISITE. 31 not easily mistaken, in order to conyince us of such things hay- ing happened. You observe, I am not in the least arguing that any such things are impossible ; but all that argument of your own^ about things acting according to their properties, comes in here sufficiently for me to remind you of it ; for if you saw a person making yam without wool, or oil without sesamum seed for him to extract it from, you would consider it so rare as almost to distrust your own senses ; much more then, if other persons reported it, you would suspect some mistake to exist somewhere ; and so generally we shall find, in proportion as any thing is marvellous and out of the way, the more intelligent part of man- kind woiQd require clearer and more ample evidence of it. Pray, should not you think so ?" continued Blancombe, here turning to Sad^anda. "For my part, I certainly should," he replied. " Then we see," resumed Blancombe, " that not only as regards the miracles of S^kya, but all miracles asserted everywhere, there is need to cross-examine our witnesses sharply, and inquire not only into their sincerity, but into their opportunities of obser- vation, and their clearness of judgment Perhaps, indeed, if we were discussing miracles which appealed to the whole world, we should desire them to have happened among a people of no credulous turn, but inquisitive and apt to test occurrences by the strictest methods. There is scarcely an art in the schools of Hindti dialecticians, G6tama and the rest, which in such a case must not admit of being resorted to. Hence not only the country, but the genius of the people, and the period of its history, and the predisposition of mind on part of the witnesses, should all be taken into account; and if the tradition of the miradea has been handed down for many generations, one would ask many questions as to the books in which it is preserved, and the persons in whose custody the books have been, and the authors to whom they are ascribed, and not least, as to the wit- nesses by whom that authorship is asserted, and the number of years which may have elapsed between that assertion and the lifetime of the supposed authors, or the probability of their 32 BAUDDHA SCRIPTURES. overhearing it. I do not here enlarge upon considerations of moral fitness, though it is obvious to persons of any gravity that amongst things wonderful those are most worthy of being received as credentials of a religious teacher, which are least capable of being called by any one either childish, or useless, or maleficent; only, as you have mentioned the miracles of S^kya, I was willing to learn from you incidentally, how far your system takes into account the necessity of greater evidence for a thing in exact proportion as it is extraordinary." Saug. " What you say has a very reasonable sound, but it does not apply in such a way as to throw the slightest discredit* upon the miracles of Sdkya, which are handed down in our Holy Scriptures." Blan. " But when were those Scriptures written?" Saug.