The Duke of Argyll. 725 physical world or in the animal creation; for if we look at the different species of animals we find no unity unless from that relation by which one preys upon another. Thus, referring to Nature, Shakespeare says in Richard III., "O, then began the tempest of my soul." Again in Richard II., "This lowering tempest of your home-bred hate." In Hamlet we have three words in one line to express a single mental affection: "In the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say whirlwind of passion." So, to refer to animals, he says, in King Lear, "Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey." Quotations of this kind might be multiplied indefinitely. But this could not be if there were. not in Nature disorder and want of unity corresponding to those in man. So far as Is there then no unity in Nature as a whole? human sagacity, unaided by Revelation, has been able to discover, we say no. Taken as a whole it neither realises nor tends towards any one result to such a degree that we can find its unity in relation to that. Certainly it is not as well adapted as it might be to produce happiness; much less is it as well adapted as it might be to produce misery. There is in it a strange blending of elements and tendencies and results that has always caused it to be a mystery and enigma unsolvable by man. But if we turn to Revelation we find that the end of Nature is not within itself, and therefore that its unity must be from its relation to something out of, beyond, or above itself. Viewed in the light of Revelation, this marvellous system of materials which we call matter, and of uniformities which we call laws, originated we know not when, upheld we know not how, is but a temporary scaffolding erected with reference to a permanent building that is now going up. "They shall all," says the Scripture," wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed." Viewing Nature thus as a scaffolding, we shall see that there is in it a perfect adaptation to the end in view, and that it is by its very want of unity within itself that it is fitted to become a part of a higher unity. It is the uniformities which constitute it a Nature, and the necessity and perfection of these, not only for the education of such a being as man, but as a condition. for his responsibility, will not be questioned. Each of these uniformities has unity within itself, but in order to become a part of a higher unity it was necessary that there should be in the whole a perfect correspondence between it and the moral state of man. Such a correspondence there is, and this it is that causes it to be what the Scriptures reveal it to be, a fit place for the temporary residence of such a being as man in a state of probation under a remedial system. The unity of Nature will then be found, not in any harmony within the system itself, but in its fitness to speak to man of both "the goodness and the severity of God"-to be an emblem of the stability of Moral Law, and of the certainty of retribution, whether for good or for evil, under its administration. Vast as the system of Nature is, we find its chief significance and value in its relation to a higher and vaster system in which we find Personality and Moral Law. While, therefore, we have a very high estimate of both the ability and value of The Reign of Law, and of each of the papers on the "Unity of Nature," we yet feel that in their total effect they do not present truly the relation of personality to Natural Law. By the term Law two things wholly distinct are signified. In the one case it signifies a uniformity, or a set of uniformities, and implies a force by which the uniformity is produced. The rule in accordance with which the force acts may or may not be known, but in either case there is no freedom of choice in the subject of the law. There is, under given conditions, a uniform, necessitated movement, and that is all. Disobedience to the law by the subject of it is impossible, and, of course, there is no responsibility, or reward, or punishment. These uniformities, uniformities of succession and of structure, are the basis of natural science. They constitute its domain. Their certainty is the ground, and the whole ground, of its certainty. In the other sense of the word Law, and especially if it be Moral Law, it signifies a command addressed to intelligent and free beings that can be obeyed or disobeyed, and that has connected with it rewards and punishments. Between these the analogy is so slight that it seems unfortunate they should both be called by the same name. We here come into the region of personality, and our ground of certainty in regard to anything future is wholly different. It is not science, but con fidence in character. We come into the region of Moral Law. This it is that addresses itself to man as man. With the system of uniformities which we call Nature, man, as a moral being, has not, necessarily, anything to do. His great interests lie outside of and beyond it. Moral Law is paramount, and may require him, as in martyrdom, to renounce whatever good it is capable of conferring, or to defy whatever evil it can inflict. This law is among those things in this universe that "cannot be shaken," and must remain. Surely, then, we might have expected that in a work entitled The Reign of Law Moral Law would at least be mentioned. But no; it is not even among the definitions, and then, though evidently not so intended, the whole trend of the discussions is towards the undue extension of natural law. We feel that Nature is not made as subordinate as it should be, and that personality and freedom do not have their proper place. Let Natural Law have its own domain, and, during its appointed time, bring round its cycles, but, except as subordinate and temporary, this system that we call Nature, this necessitated system, this round of ongoing that returns into itself, cannot justify itself, and ought not to be permanent. It can justify itself and find its unity as a part of the great whole only, and so far, as it is a condition for an end beyond itself that is worthy of such preparation. Such an end the Scriptures reveal. In its more general form this end is the glory of God, that is to say, the manifestation of his attributes. Towards this we may well believe that the whole of Nature, its disorder not less than its order, is fitted to contribute. In its more specific form the end revealed in the Scriptures is the "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." MARK HOPKINS. ART. VI.-The Legend of the Buddha, and the Life of THE legend of the Buddha runs substantially as follows. It is said that, at a time variously fixed at dates varying between the fifth and twenty-fifth century B.C.,3 the Buddha, who had already existed in a great diversity of forms, in not less than five hundred and fifty previous births, and was at that time living under the name of Santusita in the Tusita heaven, at the request of the gods of that celestial world, and out of love to man,-determined the next time to be born on earth, and there attain to that supernatural knowledge whereby he should become a Buddha, i.e. an enlightened one, and so be able to show to all men the way of deliverance from their sorrows. Accordingly, having carefully considered all the various conditions under which the would-be Buddha must be born, he decided to be conceived in the womb of Maya, the queen of Suddhodana, the king of the Sakyas, in the village of Kapilavastu, about a hundred miles north-west of Benares. This queen Maya had been a long time married, but thus far had been blessed with no child. On this occasion she had a dream. In her dream she saw the guardian devas of the four quarters take up the couch upon which she lay, and convey it to the great forest of Himala, where they placed it upon a rock under the shade of a sal tree one hundred miles high. After this the four queens of these devas bathed, anointed, and clothed her; and then the four devas took her to a rock of silver, upon which was a palace of gold; and having made a divine couch, they placed her upon it. . . . While she was 1 From Bibliotheca Sacra. 2 I have drawn the account of the Legend for the most part from a translation of the Pujawaliya, in the Rev. Spence Hardy's Manual of Buddhism; some particulars are added from other authorities, which will be indicated in their place. Mr. Hardy was for more than a quarter of a century Wesleyan Missionary to the Buddhists of Ceylon, and is justly regarded as a very high authority on all that pertains to Buddhism. 3 See Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i. p. 214; also Hardy's Legends and Theories of the Buddhists, pp. 78, 79. 4 Buddhism, Rhys Davids, p. 26. and the Life of the Christ. 729 there reposing the Bodhisat1 appeared to her, like a cloud in the moonlight, coming from the north, and in his hand holding a lotus. After ascending the rock, he thrice circumambulated the queen's couch. At this moment Santusita, who saw the progress of the dream, passed away from the world of the gods, and was conceived in the world of men ;2 and Maya discovered, after the circumambulations were concluded, that Bodhisat was lying in her body. This wonderful conception of the Buddha was accompanied by a multitude of the most astounding prodigies, which our space will not allow us to enumerate. As the time that the queen should be delivered drew nigh the queen informed her husband that she wished to visit her parents, and accordingly started on her journey. On the way, however, it came to pass that, in a grove called Lumbini, the child was born. The wonderful circumstances which attended his birth are many of them scarcely of a character to be here detailed. Suffice it here to say that upon his birth thousands and ten thousands of devas came to adore him, bringing him gifts; two cleansing silver streams of water, sent by the devas, came down upon him and his mother; at once the child began to walk, and to exclaim, " I am chief in the world! I am the most excellent in the world! Hereafter there is to me no other birth." As compared with this account, as given in the Pujawaliya, the Fo-pen-hing, or Chinese version of the Abhinishkramana sutra, translated by Professor Beal, is much more detailed, and tells us that "at the time of the birth of Bodhisatwa in Lumbini... the rishis and the devas, who dwelt on earth, exclaimed with great joy, 'This day Buddha is born, for the good of men, to dispel the darkness of their ignorance,' etc. Then the four heavenly kings took up the strain, and said, Now because Bodhisatwa is born to give joy and bring peace to the world, therefore is there this brightness.' Then the gods of the thirty-three heavens took up the burden of the strain, and the Yama devas, and the Tusita devas; and so forth 1 Bodhisat or Bodhisatwa, means "the future Buddha.” 2 Many authorities add that he came and entered, or seemed to enter, her side in the shape of a young white elephant. See, e.g. Bigandet's Legend of Gaudama, vol. i. p. 29; also Fausböll's Buddhist Birth Stories, p. 63. 3 Herein some have discovered an analogy with the baptism of Christ; see Eitel's Buddhism, p. 8. VOL. XXXI.-NO. CXXII. 3 B |