6. CONVERSATION OF BUDDHA AND PURNA.--One of the traditions which permit us the better to appreciate the original character, at once affecting and ingenuous, of Indian thought, is the conversation of Buddha with his disciple Purna about a journey the latter was going to undertake to the barbarians for the purpose of teaching them the new religion:-- “They are men,” said Buddha, “who are fiery in temper, passionate, cruel, furious, insolent. If they openly address you in words which are malicious and coarse, and become angry with you, what will you think?” “If they address me to my face in coarse and insolent terms, this is what I shall think: they are certainly good men who openly address me in malicious terms, but they will neither strike me with their hands nor stone me.” “But should they strike you with their hands and stone you, what will you think?” “I shall think that they are good men, gentle men, who strike me with their hands and stone me, but do not beat me with a club nor with a sword.” “But if they beat you with a club and with a sword?” “They are good men, gentle men, who beat me with a club and with a sword, but they do not completely kill me.” “But if they were really to kill you?” “They are good men, gentle men, who deliver me with so little pain from this body encumbered with defilements.” “Very good, Purna! You may live in the country of those barbarians. Go, Purna! Being liberated, liberate; being consoled, console; having reached Nirvâna thus made perfect, cause others to go there.”[9] Whatever there is to admire in such a strange system of morals should not blind us to the vices which resulted from its practical consequences: such as the abuse of passive resignation, the complete absence of the idea of right and of justice, and no active virtues. 7. EFFECTS ON EDUCATION.--Little is known of the actual state of educational practice among the Hindoos. It may be said, however, that the Brahmins, the priests, had the exclusive charge of education. Woman, in absolute subjection to man, had no share whatever in instruction. As to boys, it seems that in India there were always schools for their benefit; schools which were held in the open country under the shade of trees, or, in case of bad weather, under sheds. Mutual instruction has been practised in India from the remotest antiquity; it is from here, in fact, that Andrew Bell, at the close of the eighteenth century, borrowed the idea of this mode of instruction. Exercises in writing were performed first upon the sand with a stick, then upon palm leaves with an iron style, and finally upon the dry leaves of the plane-tree with ink. In discipline there was a resort to corporal punishment; besides the rod the teacher employed other original means of correction; for example, he threw cold water on the offender. The teacher, moreover, was treated with a religious respect; the child must respect him as he would Buddha himself.