A religion of such wide acceptance by nations and individuals of such different characters and circumstances, and which has controlled the destinies of thousands of millions of souls during nearly twenty-three hundred years, and which comes nearest to Christianity in the purity of its morals and the benefits it proposes to confer upon the human race, is certainly worthy of very careful attention. In studying it we must carefully avoid either a wholesale condemnation or an unqualified approval; we must recognize that there are both good and evil in it. It is to be remembered, also, that we can only look upon Buddha’s teachings after the lapse of ages, and from this long distance the view is likely to be anything else than clear. Without a doubt the doctrines of Buddha have been so perverted, that he would scarcely recognize the religion that bears his name to-day. Then, too, being an Oriental religion, we Western people cannot study it under as favorable circumstances as the Eastern people. Oriental religions can be seen best by Oriental eyes. Buddhism is a reform upon Brahminism. It is of Hindu origin, and while it has but little sway in the land of its birth, it retains the Hindu cast in all its wanderings into other lands and its observances among other peoples. THE STORY OF GAUTAMA, THE FOUNDER OF BUDDHISM. In giving these legends of the life of Gautama, it should be stated that they are derived from the writings of Buddhists who lived long after Gautama was dead. They are to be received, of course, with that degree of credulity which would attend the legends of devoted disciples of any such teacher. Those who have studied Buddhism in its native land have collected these legends with great care, among whom one of the most careful authors is Rev. Spence Hardy, who has collected and commented on them with great candor. At the end of the sixth century before Christ, a wise and good king reigned in the capital city of his country, Kapila-vastu, about one hundred miles north-east from the great city of Benares, in India. Around this city the snow-crowned, giant peaks of the Himalayas towered up in the clear blue of the Indian sky. The city was on the banks of an insignificant river, the Rohini. The people lived from the produce of their cattle and their rice-fields; they adhered to the Hindu religion. The wife of King Suddhodana was named Maya, because of her wondrous beauty. She was childless until her forty-fifth year. Little Prince Siddartha was born under the shade of a satin-tree, in the year 552 B.C. In later years he was called the “Buddha.” At this time, in addition to the name Siddartha, he received the name of Sakya-muni from his family, and that of Gautama from his clan.