"Their principle at least is true. The soul which is occupied with things above, and is initiated into the mysteries of the Lord, cannot but account the body evil, and even hostile. The soul of man is divine, and his highest wisdom is to become as much as possible a stranger to the body with its embarrassing appetites. God has breathed into man from heaven a portion of His own divinity. That which is divine is invisible. It may be extended, but it is incapable of separation. Consider how vast is the range of our thought over the past and the future, the heavens and the earth. This alliance with an upper world, of which we are conscious, would be impossible, were not the soul of man an indivisible portion of that divine and blessed spirit. Contemplation of the divine essence is the noblest exercise of man; it is the only means of attaining to the highest truth and virtue, and therein to behold God is the consummation of our happiness here." Here we have the higher Buddhism, which seeks to reach the plane of spirit, an "alliance with the upper world" by the aid of solitary reverie. That Philo knew where this religion had come from is, I think, proved by another passage. "Among the Persians there is the order of Magi who deeply investigate the works of nature for the discovery of truth, and in leisure's quiet are initiated into and expound in clearest significance the divine virtues. "In India, too, there is the sect of the Gymnosophists, who, in addition to speculative philosophy, diligently cultivate the ethical also, and have made their life an absolute ensample of virtue. "Palestine, moreover, and Syria are not without their harvest of virtuous excellence, which region is inhabited by no small portion of the very populous nation of the Jews. There are counted amongst them certain ones, by name Essenes, in number about four thousand, who derive their name, in my opinion, by an inaccurate trace from the term in the Greek language for holiness (Essen or Essaios--Hosios, holy), inasmuch as they have shown themselves pre-eminent by devotion to the service of God; not in the sacrifice of living animals, but rather in the determination to make their own minds fit for a holy offering." (Philo, "Every virtuous man is free.") Plainly here the Essenes are pronounced of the same faith as the Gymnosophists of India, who abstain from the bloody sacrifice, that is the Buddhists. I will now jot hastily down the points of contact between one of these monasteries described by Philo and a Buddhist monastery. In the centre is the sanctuary. Round it, in an enclosure "four square," are ranged the cells of the monks. The monks in Thibet, according to the Abbé Huc, may be divided into three categories. 1. Those who live in monasteries and perform the religious services, and also, like the Essenes described by Josephus, farm the convent land. 2. Hermits, in caves, like Banos dreaming holy dreams.