of the Apostle-Emperor’s soul.  Within a year of the conquest of the Kalinjas, for which he afterwards publicly recorded his remorse, Asoka became a lay disciple of the Buddhist law, and two and a half years later studied as a Buddhist monk.  In 257 B.C., the thirteenth year of his reign, he began to preach his series of sermons in stone—­sermons that were at the same time laws given to his Empire.  His profession of faith was as lofty as it was simple: 

The gods who were regarded as true all over India have been shown to be untrue.  For the fruit of exertion is not to be attained by a great man only, because even by the small man who chooses to exert himself immense heavenly bliss may be won....  Father and mother must be hearkened to.  Similarly, respect for living creatures must be firmly established.  Truth must be spoken.  These are the virtues of the law of piety which must be practised....  In it are included proper treatment of slaves and servants, honour to teachers, gentleness towards living creatures, and liberality towards ascetics and Brahmans....  All men are my children, and just as I desire for my children that they may enjoy every kind of prosperity and happiness in both this world and the next, so I desire the same for all men.

These principles are applied in all the instructions to his officials.  He commends to their special care the primitive jungle folk and the untamed people of the borderlands.  He bestows much thought on the alleviation of human suffering, and his injunctions in restriction of the slaughter and maiming of animals and the preservation of life are minute and precise.  It is in this connection that the influence of Buddhism on Hinduism has been most permanent, for whilst the primitive Aryan Hindus were beef-eaters, their descendants carried the vegetarian doctrines of Buddhism to the extreme length of condemning cow-killing as the most awful of crimes, next to the killing of a Brahman.

Determined to preserve the unity and discipline of his own church, Asoka’s large tolerance sees some good in all creeds.  He wishes every man to have the reading of his own scriptures, and whilst reserving his most lavish gifts for Buddhist shrines and monasteries, he does not deny his benefactions to Brahmans and ascetics of other sects.  Nor is he content merely to preach and issue orders.  His monastic vows, though they lead him to forswear the amusements and even the field sports which had been his youthful pastimes, do not involve the severance of all worldly ties.  He is the indefatigable and supreme head of the Church; he visits in solemn pilgrimage all the holy places hallowed by the memory of Buddha, and endows shrines and monasteries and convents with princely munificence; he convenes at Pataliputra a great Buddhist council for combating heresy.  But he remains the indefatigable and supreme head of the State.  “I am never fully satisfied with my efforts and my despatch of business.  Work I must for the welfare of all, and the root of the matter is in effort.”  He controls a highly trained bureaucracy not unlike that of British India to-day, and his system of government is wonderfully effective so long as it is informed by his untiring energy and singular loftiness of purpose.