Produced by Steven Gibbs, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net THE SOUL OF A PEOPLE [Illustration: Publisher's logo] THE SOUL OF A PEOPLE BY H. FIELDING 'For to see things in their beauty is to see them in their truth' MATTHEW ARNOLD London MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1899 _First Edition, 1898_ _Second Edition, 1898_ _Third Edition, 1899_ DEDICATION TO SECOND EDITION _I dedicate this book to you about whom it is written. It has been made a reproach to me by the critics that I have only spoken well of you, that I have forgotten your faults and remembered only your virtues. If it is wrong to have done this, I must admit the wrong. I have written of you as a friend does of a friend. Where I could say kind things of you I have done so, where I could not I have been silent. You will find plenty of people who can see only your faults, and who like to tell you of them. You will find in the inexorable sequence of events a corrector of these faults more potent than any critics can be. But I am not your critic, but your friend. If many of you had not admitted me, a stranger, into your friendship during my many very solitary years, of what sort should I be now? How could I have lived those years alone? You kept alive my sympathies, and so saved me from many things. Do you think I could now turn round and criticise you? No; but this book is my tribute of gratitude for many kindnesses._ PREFACE In most of the quotations from Burmese books containing the life of the Buddha I am indebted, if not for the exact words, yet for the sense, to Bishop Bigandet's translation. I do not think I am indebted to anyone else. I have, indeed, purposely avoided quoting from any other book and using material collected by anyone else. The story of Ma Pa Da has appeared often before, but my version is taken entirely from the Burmese song. It is, as I have said, known to nearly every Burman. I wanted to write only what the Burmese themselves thought; whether I have succeeded or not, the reader can judge. I am indebted to Messrs. William Blackwood and Sons for permission to use parts of my article on 'Burmese Women'--_Blackwood's Magazine_, May, 1895--in the present work. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. LIVING BELIEFS 1 II. HE WHO FOUND THE LIGHT--I. 17 III. HE WHO FOUND THE LIGHT--II. 34 IV. THE WAY TO THE GREAT PEACE 46 V. WAR--I. 56 VI. WAR--II. 77 VII. GOVERNMENT 87 VIII. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 102 IX. HAPPINESS 116 X. THE MONKHOOD--I. 127 XI. THE MONKHOOD--II. 153 XII. PRAYER 158 XIII. FESTIVALS 166 XIV. WOMEN--I. 185