rebuilding their city and temple.1 Plans for reconstruction, after an ecclesiastical order, had already been prepared by the prophet Ezekiel and others in Babylon; but it was left to an unknown prophet, the so-called second Isaiah, to be the herald voice 2 which heartened the captives to return. Back in Palestine the work of reconstruction lagged sorely, and the names of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and the reformers Ezra and Nehemiah are conspicuous among those who labored to rally the people to the work. Judaism was restored a church rather than a nation; the priest was the spokesman rather than the prophet; and the Law secured the people from any further lapse into idolatry. This Judaism, colored not a little in certain directions by Persian beliefs, yet with a priestly and sacrificial system all its own, marks another important stage in the history of religion.

An episode of the Achæmenian period, big with future consequence, was the famous march of the Ten Thousand from Babylon to the Black Sea. The Ten Thousand were Greek mercenaries under the command of Xenophon, who had taken sides with Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxerxes. Cyrus died, so their assistance was useless; but the return march proved to the Greeks how easily a small, well-disciplined force might defeat the huge but unwieldy hordes of the Persian satraps. Thus were sown the seeds which a century later had so significant a harvest in the expedition of Alexander the Great.

In speaking of the Achæmenians, one must not omit reference to their place in the history of India. To the general reader the tale of India in the seventh century B.C. and the two or three centuries which succeeded seems the story of a closed historical pocket. The Brahman ritualized the Veda till he had transformed it from the spontaneous poetry of the earlier time into a mass of complicated ceremonial, entombed in treatises called Brahmanas. But this devotion to the gospel of works produced on the part of certain classes a reaction in the direction of specu1 See Ezra 1. 2 See Isaiah XL and following chapters.

See the Anabasis of Xenophon.

lation. Men resolved to save themselves by thinking things out, instead of by doing things. So we have the remarkable philosophical writings known as Upanishads, and out of these were deduced what are called the Six Orthodox Schools. The orthodoxy is not very obvious, except in the fact that all yield lip-service to the Veda; the orthodox philosopher might be theist or atheist, pantheist or polytheist. But some more daring souls went in for heresy, which consisted in rejecting the Veda and in disregarding caste. Two of these heresies have survived. One of them, Jainism,2 exists only in India and numbers only a million and a half believers. The other, Buddhism, became a world religion, though it eventually lost its place in India. The story of the rise of Buddhism cannot be separated from the history of Asia, for the spread of this faith is one of the unifying facts in the story of the continent.

The connection with the Achæmenian rulers is in the fact that some have seen in Buddhism an illustration of Persian influence upon India. Mr. D. B. Spooner 3 probably overstates the inferences to be drawn from the discovery of ruined palaces at Patna, built after the pattern of the palaces of Persepolis, but there can be little doubt that the dominion of Darius Hystaspes in India was by no means a myth. The adventure of his Greek admiral Skylax is certainly not the solitary instance of his interest in the peninsula. Whether, however, this interest extended to the introduction of religious ideas must be regarded as exceedingly doubtful.

There was,

Buddhism owes its success to several causes. of course, the appeal made to the heart of caste-ridden India by the throwing open of the new society to all, without distinction. It was the catholic note in religion, sounded for the first time, as from a great bell suspended from the sky. But beyond even this was the gracious and lovable personality of Gautama, its founder. Prince Siddhartha, known also from his family name —

1 For the Six Orthodox Schools, see Monier Williams, Hinduism, Appendix, p. 187. See The Heart of Jainism, Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson.

See "The Zoroastrian Period in Indian History," Journal Royal Asiatic Society, 1915.

as Gautama, was the son of a petty rajah in the north of India, on the borders of the territory which is now called Nepal. He was born about the middle of the sixth century B.C., near Kapilavastu, his father's capital. Among the many traditions of his early life which are probably true are those which tell of his marriage to Yasodhara and the birth of a son. Then came a period of doubt, aroused, it is said, by the fourfold spectacle of age, sickness, death, and the ascetic life. The prince pondered over these things till he made what is called the Great Renunciation, leaving his family and his possessions, in order to attach himself to a company of Benares ascetics. This experience yielded no satisfaction to his troubled spirit, so he separated himself and took up his position beneath the Bo-tree. Here he endured all the temptations of the Evil One, but at length found peace in the acceptance of the Four Noble Truths. These, which constitute what might be termed the creed of Buddhism, are as follows: the truth that life is sorrow; the truth that sorrow comes from desire; the truth that sorrow can be extinguished only in Nirvana; and the truth as to the Noble Eightfold Way of Buddhist ethics. Gautama is now "the Buddha," the Enlightened One. He spent the rest of his life in the preaching of his doctrine and the gathering together of disciples. Among these he passed away peacefully about 487 B.C. By that time Buddhism was already a system: Buddha, the Teacher; Dharma, the Law; and Sangha, the Society. To these "Three Precious Ones" the devout Buddhist commits his soul and attains to peace.

4

3

While the religion of Gautama was slowly making its way in the north of India, another influence of a very different kind was finding an entrance. This was the invasion of Alexander, "the he-goat of the North," an event destined to breed

1 See Sir Edwin Arnold's poetical version in The Light of Asia, Book III. The Ficus Indica.

Nirvana is not extinction, but cessation of the consciousness of individuality. The Eightfold Way consists of right belief, right resolve, right speech, right behavior, right occupation, right effort, right contemplation, and right concentration. 5 See Daniel VIII, 21.

nus.

consequences which are by no means exhausted even at the present day. Alexander is both European and Asiatic, at once the son of Philip of Macedon and the Iskander who, in the popular tradition of the Orient, is the accepted heir of Darius CodomanAlexander's invasion was not nor was it intended to be a mere raid. Though the facilities for conquest were in part provided by the treason of Persians and Indians, the directive genius of Aristotle's wonderful pupil is ever in evidence. The conquest of Persia was the more permanent achievement. The whole campaign, conducted with almost miraculous strategy from Granicus and Issus to the crowning stroke at Arbela, was planned to this end. In preparing the way for the rule of the Seleucids, preparation was also made for the Roman administration which superseded it and was modeled upon it. Yet, even if an afterthought, the invasion and temporary occupation of Northwest India was an epoch-making event. When entrance to the land of the fabled Bacchus was unbarred by the treachery of Takshasila's rajah, Alexander's ambition was stimulated to attempt an achievement much beyond what his fates permitted. The various Alexandrias founded along the path of victory Alexandria of the Arachosians, Alexandria of the Caucasus, and so on were intended to be memorials of empire as permanent as the great city on the Nile delta. The lines of Matthew Arnold which declare:

The East bow'd low before the blast,

In patient, deep disdain;

She let the legions thunder past,

Then plunged in thought again,'

are certainly not applicable to the magnificent campaign which let in the light of the West upon the East and made Asia forever the debtor of Europe. One has only to reflect upon the many elements of Western culture in government and administration, in art and science, to be convinced of the far-reaching results of that sudden spear-thrust given by the Macedonian to

1 Matthew Arnold, “Obermann Once More.”

Asia in general. Cæsar exclaimed to the timid boatman, "Thou carriest Cæsar and his fortunes!" But what are we to think of the fateful future entrusted to the boat in which Alexander himself, the regent Perdiccas, Ptolemy, the future governor of Egypt, Seleucus, the future governor of the East, and Lysimachus, the future governor of Thrace, all together crossed the Indian river just before engaging the Paurava king?1 Never were East and West more dramatically juxtaposed than when Alexander, in cavalry cloak, broad-brimmed hat, and topboots, was asked by the naked ascetic of India to strip and sit beside him on the heated stones, to learn a wisdom beyond anything Aristotle was able to impart.

This episode of Alexander has been dwelt upon at some length because we have no better illustration in ancient times of the way in which great personality affected history on almost a universal scale.

The break-up of Alexander's dominion after his early death presently left a large part of Western Asia under Seleucus Nicator and his successors. During this period all these lands were "Greek in speech and mind." Hellenism seemed easily victorious everywhere. The one exception was Palestine, where Antiochus Epiphanes, at the tail-end of the Seleucid line, overzealous for Hellenization, pushed the Jews, about 168 B.C., into almost fanatical revolt under Judas Maccabæus and his heroic brothers.2 This revolt, moreover, had important consequences. It developed an apocalyptic expectation of the Messianic rule, contrasting the doomed brute-power of the world empires with the benign kingdom of the Son of Man.3 Life too began to be viewed in a larger way, since poetic justice demanded for the martyrs of faith the reward of a better world beyond the grave, and corresponding retribution for their oppressors.

1 Poros, probably a descendant of the Puru clan.

See the Second Book of the Maccabees, in the Apocrypha.

For the use of the term "Son of Man," see Daniel VII, 13, and in the Synoptic Gospels, passim.