BUDDHISM

A religion which prevails over a great part of Asia; and, according to the estimates of some geographers, has a much greater number of worshippers than any other form of faith among mankind. China, the peninsula beyond the Ganges, Japan, and various Indian islands, are chiefly peopled by Buddhists. The founder of this religion, according to tradition, was an Indian prince, to whom the title of Buddha, or "The Sage,'' is a igned by his worshippers. The period to which his life is a igned is variously estimated, according to a variety of oriental traditions; hut several of them coincide in referring it nearly to the tenth or eleventh century before Christ. Buddhism was expelled from India by the persecutions of the Brahmans, between the fifth and seventh centuries of our era. The doctrines of the Buddhists seem mainly to list on the principle, that the world, and sensible objects contain}'! in it, are manifestations of the Deity, but of a transient and delusive character; that the lum an soul is an emanation from Deity; that after death it will again be bound to matter, and subjected to the miseries and accidents of this life, unle the individual to whom it belongs by the attainment of wisdom through prayer and contem- 172 [s. 186]