that made him the idol of the people.  From every page stands out the strong, attractive personality of this teacher and winner of hearts.  No man ever lived so godless yet so godlike.  Arrogating to himself no divinity, despairing of future bliss, but without fear as without hope, leader of thought but despising lovingly the folly of the world, exalted but adored, the universal brother, he wandered among men, simply, serenely; with gentle irony subduing them that opposed him, to congregation after congregation speaking with majestic sweetness, the master to each, the friend of all.  His voice was singularly vibrant and eloquent;[34] his very tones convinced the hearer, his looks inspired awe.  From the tradition it appears that he must have been one of those whose personality alone suffices to make a man not only a leader but a god to the hearts of his fellows.  When such an one speaks he obtains hearers.  It matters little what he says, for he influences the emotions, and bends whoever listens to his will.  But if added to this personality, if encompassing it, there be the feeling in the minds of others that what this man teaches is not only a verity, but the very hope of their salvation; if for the first time they recognize in his words the truth that makes of slaves free men, of classes a brotherhood, then it is not difficult to see wherein lies the lightning-like speed with which the electric current passes from heart to heart.  Such a man was Buddha, such was the essential of his teaching; and such was the inevitable rapidity of Buddhistic expansion, and the profound influence of the shock that was produced by the new faith upon the moral consciousness of Buddha’s people.

The literature of early Buddhism consists of a number of historical works embodying the life and teaching of the master, some of more didactic and epigrammatic intent, and, in the writings of the Northern Buddhists, some that have given up the verbose simplicity of the first tracts in favor of tasteless and extravagant recitals more stagey than impressive.  The final collection of the sacred books (earlier is the Suttanta division into Nik[=a]yas) is called Tripitaka, ’the three baskets,’ one containing the tracts on discipline; one, the talks of Buddha; and one, partly metaphysical; called respectively Vinaya, Sutta, and Abhidhamma.  The Southern[35] P[=a]li redaction—­for the writings of the Northern[36] Buddhists are in Sanskrit—­was commented upon in the fifth century of this era by Buddha-gosha (’Buddha’s glory’), and appears to be older than the Sanskrit version of Nep[=a]l.  Some of the writings go back as far as the Second Council, and their content, so far as it concerns Buddha’s own words, in many cases is doubtless a tradition that one should accept as authoritative.  The works on discipline, instead of being as dull as one might reasonably expect of books that deal with the petty details of a monastery, are of exceeding interest (although whole chapters