In Buddhism, as opposed to Brahminism, there is a greater tenderness of animal life in general, whilst less respect is paid to the ox-tribe in particular. There is less also of the system of caste; and, in consequence of this, fewer of those elements of priestly influence, which originate in the ideas of the hereditary transmission of sacro-sanctitude. Buddhism, too, has the credit of running further in the dream-land of subjective metaphysics than Brahminism,--though this, as far as my own very imperfect means of judging go, is doubtful. Into practical pantheism, and into the deification of human reason it _does_ run. When self-contemplation has reached its highest degree of abstraction, the state of _Nirwana_ is induced. This seems to mean the absorption of the spirit within itself; a condition which at once suggests adjectives like _impassive_, _subjective_, _exalted_, and _supra-sensual_, or substantives like _transcendentalism_, _egoism_, &c., and the like; in some cases with definite ideas to correspond with the term; oftener as mere meaningless words. Such, however, is the nomenclature which is requisite; a nomenclature to which I have recourse, not for the sake of illustrating my subject, but with the view of giving a practical notion of its indistinctness. Buddha himself is a specimen and model of self-absorption, consummation, perfection, or exaltation rather than a deity, or even a prophet. He shows what purity can effect, rather than teaches what purity consists in. He may even have become what he was, by his own unaided powers of supra-sensual abstraction. All this is but a series of negations, at least in the way of theology. But his spirit, after the departure of his body from the earth,[52] became incarnate in the body of some successor--and so on _ad infinitum_. This connects Buddhism with the doctrine of metempsychosis; a doctrine which the incarnations of Brahminism also suggest. Such are some of the speculative points of Buddhism. Its morality has been greatly, and, perhaps, unduly extolled. So much contemplation can scarcely exist without the condemnation of the more palpable sins of _commission_. Hence, those vices which are the offspring of passion and ignorance are condemned; as is but natural. The suspension of exertion precludes active vice. Of the active virtues, however, the recognition is as slight as may be; so slight as to make it doubtful whether Buddhism be a better rule for the formation of good citizens than Brahminism. Which has been the most resistant to the influences of Christianity is doubtful.[53]