did not lie that way.  He therefore resumed his former diet and a more comfortable mode of life, and so lost many disciples who had been attracted by his amazing austerity.  Alone in his hermitage, he came at last to that solid conviction, that KNOWLEDGE never to be shaken, of the laws of things, which had seemed to him the only foundation of a truly free life.  The spot where, after a week of constant meditation, he at last arrived at this beatific vision, became one of the most sacred places in India.  He was seated under a tree, his face to the east, not having moved for a day and night, when he attained the triple science, which was to rescue mankind from its woes.  Twelve hundred years after the death of the Buddha, a Chinese pilgrim was shown what then passed for the sacred tree.  It was surrounded by high brick walls, with an opening to the east, and near it stood many topes and monasteries.  In the opinion of M. Saint-Hilaire, these ruins, and the locality of the tree, may yet be rediscovered.  The spot deserves to be sought for, since there began a movement which has, on the whole, been a source of happiness and improvement to immense multitudes of human beings, during twenty-four centuries.

Having attained this inward certainty of vision, he decided to teach the world his truth.  He knew well what it would bring him,—­what opposition, insult, neglect, scorn.  But he thought of three classes of men:  those who were already on the way to the truth, and did not need him; those who were fixed in error, and whom he could not help; and the poor doubters, uncertain of their way.  It was to help these last, the doubters, that the Buddha went forth to preach.  On his way to the holy city of India, Benares, a serious difficulty arrested him at the Ganges, namely, his having no money to pay the boatman for his passage.  At Benares he made his first converts, “turning the wheel of the law” for the first time.  His discourses are contained in the sacred books of the Buddhists.  He converted great numbers, his father among the rest, but met with fierce opposition from the Hindoo Scribes and Pharisees, the leading Brahmans.  So he lived and taught, and died at the age of eighty years.

Naturally, as soon as the prophet was dead he became very precious in all eyes.  His body was burned with much pomp, and great contention arose for the unconsumed fragments of bone.  At last they were divided into eight parts, and a tope was erected, by each of the eight fortunate possessors, over such relics as had fallen to him.  The ancient books of the North and South agree as to the places where the topes were built, and no Roman Catholic relics are so well authenticated.  The Buddha, who believed with Jesus that “the flesh profiteth nothing,” and that “the word is spirit and life,” would probably have been the first to condemn this idolatry.  But fetich-worship lingers in the purest religions.