Buddha, unlike Mohammed, tasted the pleasures of this life for thirty years as only the son of a king and husband of a princess could; but the unrestrained gratification of his desires seem only to have added fuel to the fire that smouldered within him, for he rejected them all as totally unsatisfactory. Then followed the period of his retirement in the fastnesses of his native mountains, where he endeavoured to work out the origin and remedy of pain, sorrow, sickness, and all the evils flesh is heir to. Having arrived at satisfactory conclusions, he commenced to preach. At first his converts were few, but in time the rivulets united to form that mighty stream which covered the whole of India, Burmah, and China. Mohammed, on the other hand, lived a hard and somewhat chequered life throughout, and was further advanced in life when the pseudo-revelation changed the current of his thoughts. As in every other respect, the two religions differed greatly in the means employed to disseminate them; the teachings of the Light of Asia seemed to flow on throughout the length and breadth of the land as a great stream with unruffled surface, acquiring strength and durability by appealing to the fairer side of humanity; Mohammedanism resembled rather a mountain torrent bubbling and fretting at every turn, promulgated moreover amid all the attendant miseries of savage war. The early life and bringing up of Buddha would naturally lead one to suppose that he was a highly educated man; yet, strange to say, no traces of his writings have been discovered, even supposing that he ever committed his thoughts to such an ordeal, in order that his followers might not forget them after he had passed away. More worldly wise was Mohammed, who, either in his own handwriting or in that of an amanuensis, left behind him a copy of that wonderful compilation, the Koran, as well as the severe ritual, setting forth the number of prayers, the long, trying fasts, the extent of charity in money and produce, and the pilgrimages to the holy city of Mecca, with their attendant ceremonies, including the sevenfold circuit of the Black Stone. The Anglo-Indian has daily opportunity of observing how faithfully these religious observances are carried out in the face of many obstacles, but his admiration will not be unmixed with relief at the comparatively slight hold this creed of fanaticism has taken on the natives of Hindostan. The remissness of Buddha in not committing to writing his many and valuable teachings was amply atoned for by his followers; and, as in many other religions, the numeral 3 seems to predominate in the ordering of their rites.