not been made so much of a fool. It seems to us also that in this work, as well as its predecessors, the conversations are sometimes too long. One of the best artistic features of the story is the portraiture of Shakerism, after the author's happiest manner, full of fidelity and kindliness. We may add that the 'realism' of the narrative might have been more complete if we had heard something more of the luggage that went astray toward Portland, which we imagine Bunyan or Defoe would not have lost sight of in the circumstances, especially as Egeria's borrowed waterproof turns up not without effect.

FAITH AND CHARACTER.*-This journal has before commended. (vol. xxxviii, p. 289) a volume of Dr. Vincent's Sermons, entitled "Gates into the Psalm Country;" and we take pleasure in referring in similar terms to the present collection, or rather selection, of twenty sermons from the same author, preached to his congregation" of the Church of the Covenant." As he tells us, they are not "the methodical development of a single topic," yet are "not devoid of a certain unity," for "the two thoughts of faith and character underlie the whole book." They are earnest presentations of evangelical truth in a clear and manly style, with happy illustrations. Publishers have learned that good sermons make popular reading, and these will be proved such among intelligent Christian people. As a matter of taste we prefer the old way of printing the text instead of detaching it from the discourse as here.

99

AMERICAN PROSE.-This compilation, in one neat volume, from the seven eminent writers named on the title page-Hawthorne, Irving, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, Thoreau, Emerson -at once speaks for itself as one of the choicest books to be selected for any parlor-table, or for a gift to any intelligent friend. It is not made up of many brief scraps strung together, like some collections of what are called "Beauties" of an author, but each writer is fairly represented by one or more whole tale or essay, as for example, Irving by "Rip Van Winkle," while a brief, condensed account of himself and his works is given in the introduc*Faith and Character. By MARVIN R. VINCENT, D.D. New York. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1880. 376 pp.

American Prose: Hawthorne, Irving, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, Thoreau, Emerson with Introductions and Notes. By the Editor of "American Poems." Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co. 1880. 424 pages.

tion, with the advantage of occasional notes. It is noticeable that most of these writers thus selected as fitly representing "American Prose," are among our best poets also contrary to a common impression that the same authors seldom excel in both kinds of composition. Might there not be a place also in some such compilation for N. P. Willis, who, if not as eminent as those here named (yet not less so than Thoreau), was remarkable as a lively and graceful writer both in prose and verse, in spite of some affectations, and for a time a favorite author with young people in what is called light literature?

THE

NEW ENGLANDER.

No. CLVII.

NOVEMBER, 1880.

ARTICLE I.-THE LIGHT OF ASIA.

The Light of Asia; or the Great Renunciation, being the life and teaching of Gautama, Prince of India and founder of Buddhism. (As told in verse by an Indian Buddhist.) By EDWIN ARNOLD, M.A. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 12mo, 1880.

THE poem by Edwin Arnold, bearing the above title, made its appearance in England in July, 1879, and was brought out for the American market by Roberts Brothers, of Boston, in the early part of the present year. It is a very brilliant production. In the rich and easy flow of its verse, its grace of language and its rare felicities of thought and expression, it deserves, perhaps, all the praise which it has so freely received.

Ever since the poem was first heralded to the world, there has been, somehow, floating in the air, on both sides the water, the idea that it was not simply a beautiful poem, but a revelation of a gospel older than Christianity, and from which Christianity itself may have been copied. Mr. Arnold says nothing of this, directly. His statement in his preface is sufficiently modest, and is as follows:

"In the following poem, I have sought, by the medium of an imaginary Buddhist votary, to depict the life and character, and indicate the philosophy of that noble hero and reformer, Prince Gautama of India, the founder of Buddhism."

That is all as if the author had no design, beyond that of telling a strange and remarkable story of the ancient years. But Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who hastened to write a review of the book, and who may be supposed as capable as any one of understanding its esoteric meaning, opens his article in the International Review, after the following manner.

"If one were told that many centuries ago a celestial ray shone into the body of a sleeping woman, as it seemed to her in her dream; that thereupon the advent of a wondrous child was predicted by the soothsayers; that angels appeared at this child's birth; that merchants came from afar, bearing gifts to him; that an ancient saint recognized the babe as divine and fell at his feet and worshiped him; that in his eighth year the child confounded his teachers with the amount of his knowledge, still showing them due reverence, that he grew up full of compassionate tenderness to all that lived and suffered; that to help his fellow creatures he sacrificed every worldly prospect and enjoyment; that he went through the ordeal of a terrible temptation, in which all the powers of evil were let loose upon him, and came out conqueror over them all; that he preached holiness and practiced charity; that he gathered disciples and sent out apostles who spread his doctrines over many lands and peoples; that this 'Helper of the Worlds' could claim a more than earthly lineage and a life that dated long before Abraham was, of whom would he think this wonderful tale was told? Would he not say at once that this must be another version of the story of One who came upon our earth in a Syrian village, during the reign of Augustus Cæsar, and died by violence during the reign of Tiberius? What would he say if he were told that the narrative was between five and six centuries older than that of the Founder of Christianity? Such is the story of this poem."

Dr. Holmes has here drawn out in fine array, some of the striking parallelisms, or supposed parallelisms between the story of Gautama, founder of Buddhism, and the Christ of the New Testament. He has set forth these resemblances in a light quite as strong as they will bear, while he is silent as to all the contrasts and discrepancies between the two stories. The singular coincidences, linking the two narratives together, have long been known and noticed. In the able article upon Buddhism, in the recent issue of Chambers' Encyclopedia, the writer says that some have held that Buddhism "could not be older than Christianity and must have originated in a blundering attempt to copy that religion, so striking are the many points of resemblance that present themselves." The author of the

article does not himself take this ground, but only reports what others have said. Indeed it would be foolish to claim that Buddhism is not older than the New Testament. Its beginning is fixed historically about six centuries before the birth of Christ. To deny this, and attempt to give the system a modern origin, would be to perpetrate the same folly into which many opposers of the Bible have fallen, when they have claimed that the books of the Old Testament were written after the prophecies which they contain were fulfilled.

While fully admitting the antiquity of Buddhism, and conceding that there are some striking resemblances in the earthly lives of Gautama and Christ, it should in justice be said that these resemblances are not so frequent or so remarkable as they are made to appear in some of our modern writings. Dr. Holmes would probably search long in the older books, on this subject, to make out such a nice tissue of coincidences as he has presented us. Within these later years many men are found who are eager to show that Christianity is only a kind of after-thought of Buddhism, and they have fashioned the old story, little by little, half unconsciously, to suit themselves.

But leaving these coincidences, such as they are, aside for the present, we propose to dwell more particularly upon the great contrasts between the two lives and the two systems. Any devout and intelligent follower of Christ who reads the "Light of Asia," in which the origin of Buddhism is portrayed in the fairest and brightest colors possible, as he lays down the book, is prepared to say, "Is that all? How meager, how coarse, how sensuous compared with Christ and the glorious gospel of the Son of God. If the first is of the earth, earthy, and is the highest and best that earth can do, what better evidence can we have that the other is from heaven, and from the heaven of heavens?"

Let us take a rapid survey of the contrasts between Christ and Siddartha,-between Christianity and Buddhism, as presented, on the one hand, in the Four Gospels, and on the other, in the "Light of Asia."

I. Gautama, or Prince Siddartha, as he is called, appears in India, as the son of a king. He is born into a royal house