of a dream, and the fear of suffering must take this frightful form. Where is the wise man who, after having seen what he is, could any longer think of joy and pleasure? "The prince turned his chariot and returned to the city. "A third time he drove to his pleasure garden through the western gate, when he saw a dead body on the road, lying on a bier, and covered with a cloth. The friends stood about crying, sobbing, tearing their hair, covering their head with dust, striking their breasts, and uttering wild cries. The prince again calling his coachman to witness this painful scene, exclaimed "Oh! woe to the youth, which must be destroyed by old age! Woe to health, which must be destroyed by so many diseases! Woe to this life, where a man remains so short a time! If there were no old age, no disease, no death; if these could be made captive for ever!' "Then betraying for the first time his intentions, the young prince said "Let us turn back, I must think how to accomplish deliver ance.' "A last meeting put an end to his hesitation. He drove through the northern gate on his way to his pleasure-gardens, when he saw a mendicant who appeared outwardly calm, subdued, looking downwards, wearing, with an air of dignity, his religious vestment, and carrying an alms-bowl. "Who is this man?' asked the prince. "Sir,' replied the coachman, 'this man is one of those who are called bhikshus, or mendicants. He has renounced all pleasures, all desires, and leads a life of austerity. He tries to conquer himself. He has become a devotee. Without passion, without envy, he walks about asking for alms.' "This is good and well said,' replied the prince. The life of a devotee has always been praised by the wise. It will be my refuge, and the refuge of other creatures; it will lead us to a real life, to happiness and immortality.' With these words the young prince turned his chariot and returned to the city." After having declared to his father and his wife his intention of retiring from the world, Buddha left his palace one night when all the guards that were to have watched him were asleep. After travelling the whole night, he gave his horse and his ornaments to his groom, and sent him back to Kapilavastu. "A monument," remarks the author of the Lalita-Vistara (p. 270), "is still to be seen on the spot where the coachman turned back." Hiouen-Thsang (II. 330) saw the same monument at the edge of a large forest, on his road to Kusinâgara, a city now in ruins, and situated about fifty miles E.S.E. from Gorakpur. Buddha first went Vaisâli, and became the pupil of a famous Brahman, who had gathered round him 300 disciples. Having learnt all that the Brahman could teach him, Buddha went away disappointed. He had not found the road to salvation. He then tried another Brahman at Râgagriha, the capital of Magadha or Behar, who had 700 disciples, and there, too, he looked in vain for the means of deliverance. He left him, followed by five of his fellow-students, and for six years retired into solitude, near a village named Uruvilva, subjecting himself to the most severe penances, previous to his appearing in the world as a teacher. At the end of this period, however, he arrived at the conviction that asceticism, far from giving peace of mind and preparing the way to salvation, was a snare and a stumblingblock in the way of truth. He gave up his exercises, and was at once deserted as an apostate by his five disciples. Left to himself he now began to elaborate his own system. He had learnt that neither the doctrines nor the austerities of the Brahmans were of any avail for accomplishing the deliverance of man, and freeing him from the fear of old age, disease, and death. After long meditations, and ecstatic visions, he at last imagined that he had arrived at that true knowledge which discloses the cause, and thereby destroys the fear, of all the changes inherent in life. It was from the moment when he arrived at this knowledge, that he claimed the name of Buddha, the Enlightened. At that moment we may truly say that the fate of millions of millions of human beings trembled in the balance. Buddha hesitated for a time whether he should keep his knowledge to himself, or communicate it to the world. Compassion for the sufferings of man prevailed, and the young prince became the founder of a religion which, after more than 2,000 years, is still professed by 455,000,000 of human beings. MAX MULLER, M.A. WONDERS CONCERNING MAN. "Fearfully and wonderfully made."— Psa. cxxxix. 14. WONDERS at home by familiarity cease to excite astonishment; and hence it happens that many know but little about "the house we live in"-the human body. We look upon a house from the outside, just as a whole or unit, never thinking of the many rooms, the curious passages, and the ingenious internal arrangements of the house, or of the wonderful structure of the man, the harmony and adaptation of all his parts. In the human skeleton, about the time of maturity, there are 165 bones. The muscles are about 500 in number. The length of the alimentary canal is about 32 feet. The amount of blood in an adult averages 30 pounds, or full one-fifth of the entire weight. The heart is six inches in length, and four inches in diameter, and beats seventy times per minute, 4,200 times per hour, 100,800 per day, 36,772,000 times per year, 2,565,440,000 in three-score and ten, and at each beat two-and-a This The in half ounces of blood are thrown out of it, one hundred and seventyfive ounces per minute, six hundred and fifty-six pounds per hour, seven and three-fourth tons per day. All the blood in the body passes through the heart in three minutes. little organ, by its ceaseless industry, lifts the enormous weight of 370,700,200 tons. The lungs will contain about one gallon of air, at their usual degree of inflation. We breathe on an average 1,200 times per hour, inhale 600 gallons of air, or 24,000 gallons per day. aggregate surface of the air cells of the lungs exceeds 20,000 square inches, an area very nearly equal to the floor of a room twelve feet square. The average weight of the brain of an adult male is three pounds and eight ounces; of a female, two pounds and four ounces. The nerves are all connected with it, directly or by the spinal marrow. These nerves, together with their branches and minute ramifications, probably exceed 10,000,000 number, forming a "body guard' outnumbering by far the greatest army ever marshalled! The skin is composed of three layers, and varies from one-fourth to oneeighth of an inch in thickness. Its average area in an adult is estimated to be 2,000 square inches. The atmospheric pressure being about fourteen pounds to the square inch, a person of medium size is subjected to a pressure of 40,000lb.! Each square inch of skin contains 3,500 sweating tubes, or perspiratory pores, each of which may be likened to a little drain-tile onefourth of an inch long, making an aggregate length of the entire surface of the body of 201,166 feet, or a tile ditch for draining the body almost forty miles long. Man is made marvellously. Who is eager to investigate the curious, to witthe wonderful works of Omnipotent Wisdom, let him not wander the wide world round to seek them, but examine himself. "The proper study of mankind is ness man." M. D. Notes on New Books. BY A BARRISTER. A WORK which is deserving of the careful attention of all our readers, has recently been published by Miss Florence Hill, at Messrs. Macmillan's, and is entitled "Children of the State: the Training of Juvenile Paupers." The questions with which it deals are of the greatest moment, and should be earnestly investigated by all philanthropists. t is of the first importance that the children who have been thrown upon our Poor Law system, by the death, or pauperization of their parents, should be the subjects of an educational influence calculated to preserve them from the fearfully demoralising condition into which they now constantly fall. Miss Hill's pleading will not be heard in vain. The Statesman's Year Book (Macmillan and Co.) contains a very excellent statistical, mercantile, and historical account of the States and Sovereigns of the civilised world for the year 1868. A good guide as to authors who have written under assumed names, has been furnished by Mr. Olphar Hamst (R. Smith), entitled The Handbook of Fictitious Names. Schools and Universities on the Continent (Macmillan) is from the pen of Mr. Matthew Arnold, M.A. Sir Edward Sullivan, Bart., gives us ten very readable chapters on Social Reform, and they are published by Mr. Edward Stanford. Messrs. Chapman and Hall give us a new description, by Mr. Louis Figuier, of the Ocean World, a history of the sea and its inhabitants. Messrs. Strahan have published Mr. Gladstone's work on Ecce Homo. The Jesus of the Evangelists (Williams and Norgate) is an examination of the internal evidence for our Lord's Divine mission, by the Rev. C. A. Row, M.A. We have a new edition of London Ordination, Advent, 1867, being seven addresses to the candidates for holy orders, by the Bishop of London. (Rivingtons.) Also Apologetic Lectures on the Saving Truths of Christianity, delivered in Leipsic by C. Ernst Luthardt, translated from the German by Sophia Taylor, published by Messrs. Clark. The Tables of Stone, (Macmillan) a volume of sermons preached by the Rev. Herbert Mortimer Luckock, M.A., in All Saints' Church, Cambridge. The Claims of the Priesthood Considered, by Rev. Henry Harris, B.D., published by W. Parker. Messrs. Trübner publish Versions of the Holy Gospels, in Gothic, A.D. 360; Anglo-Saxon, 995; Wycliffe, 1389; and Tyndale, 1596; in parallel columns, with notes, &c. They are edited by Dr. Bosworth, and G. Waring. Messrs. Longmans have issued a new and popular edition of the Life and Correspondence of Archbishop Whately; also a Memoir by Dr. John Tyndall, entitled, Faraday as a Discoverer. The Life of James Ferguson, F.R.S., a mechanist of great power, and a man whose great genius has perpetuated his influence to the present day, securing an interested audience for his eventful history, has been well compiled by Dr. E. Henderson, and published by Messrs. Fullarton and Co. Two volumes of A History of the French Revolution, based on documents and papers from the secret archives of Germany, are now ready. They form a most interesting narrative, and expose to view a great many of the secret motives of the German Courts in entering upon their wars. They are, in fact, a German view of the French Revolution. Henrich Von Sybel, Professor of History at the University of Bonn, is the editor, and Mr. Murray the publisher. The fifth volume of Mr. Eyre Evans Crowe's History of France from Clovis and Charlemagne to the Accession of Napoleon III. is just ready. So also is the third volume of Mr. J. Foster Kirk's work (Murray), entitled, History of Charles the Bold. Scenes and Studies of Savage Life (Smith and Elder), is an important work in many respects. Mr. Sproat, its author, having spent many years in and about Vancouver Island in official positions, gives us the result of his observations. Persons who are given to vaunting about English influence abroad, and those who wonder that our missionary labours are not more successful, should enlighten themselves by a perusal of these pages. And, when our Government can deign to stoop from party eminences to investigate the condition of some of our dependencies, it may find in this volume some useful matters for the consideration of our Colonial Secretary. The Origin of the Chinese, is an elaborate and well-executed attempt, on the part of Mr. John Chalmers, M.A., to trace the connection of the Chinese with Western nations, in their religion, superstitions, arts, language, and traditions. The Fourth part of the Pulpils of St. John the Divine (Macmillan and Co.) has appeared. The aim, the literature, the spirit, and the general "get up " of the series are unsurpassed. It is intended for Sunday reading, and its pages are neither defiled nor desecrated by "religious tales." Mackenzie has just issued Volume XII. of the National Encyclopædia; it seems in every respect equal to the preceding volumes. The merits and cheapness of this truly valuable work must, we should think, command for it an immense circulation. We suppose that the next volume will complete the work. To anybody who wants to consider the question of eating horse-flesh, the work of Mr. A. Bicknell (Ridgway) on Hippophagy; the Horse as food for Man, will be, perhaps, acceptable. B. A. L. Literary Notices. [We hold it to be the duty of an Editor either to give an early notice of the books sent to him for remark, or to return them at once to the Publisher. It is unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.] THE REVIEWER'S CANON. In every work regard the author's end, Since none can compass more than they intend. DISCIPLINE, and other Sermons. By Rev. CHARLES KINGSLEY. London: Macmillan and Co. HERE are seventeen short sermons on very important subjects. We said sermons, but they are very far from being sermons in the ordinary sense of the word, or even sermons after what we should consider the true model. The author is a man of transcendent ability. No man can set forth a thought in a grander style, or in a stronger form. Yet, in our judgment, his thoughts on religious subjects are not always up to the Gospel standard. Albeit we are bound to say we would far sooner that the things called sermons in a popular sense should approach to Mr. Kingsley's standard, than that his should conform to theirs. His is a work of his own, and a truly good work, too. He disregards conventional theology. He spurns the spirit of the dogmatist. Our ministerial readers may be interested to have in a few words our author's idea of the atonement :— "These theories of the atonement, as they are called, have very little teaching in them, and still less comfort. Wise and good men have tried their minds upon them in all ages; they have done their best to explain Christ's sacrifice, and the atonement which he worked out on the cross on Good Friday; but it does not seem to me that they have succeeded. I never read yet any explanation which I could fully understand, which fully satisfied my conscience, or my reason either; or which seemed to me fully to agree with and explain all the texts of Scripture bearing on this great subject. But is it possible to explain the matter? Is it not too deep for mortal man? Is it not one of the deep things of God, and of God alone, before which we must worship and believe? As for explaining or understanding it, must not that be impossible from its very nature? For, consider the first root and beginning of the whole question. Put it in the simplest shape, to which all Christians will agree. The Father sent the Son to die for the world. Most true; but who can explain those words? We are stopped at the very first step by an abyss. Who can tell us what is meant by the Father sending the Son? What is the relation, the connexion, between the Father and the Son? If we do not know that, we can know nothing about the matter, about the very root and ground thereof. |