THE SEVEN WISE MEN OF GREECE

(Seventh and sixth centuries before Christ.)

THEIR NAMES AND PRINCIPAL SAYINGS.

(From a Greek epigram, translated by Lord Neaves, in "The Greek Anthology" [" Ancient Classics for English Readers"].)

I'LL tell the names and sayings and the places of their

birth,

Of the Seven great ancient Sages, so renowned on Grecian earth:

The Lindian Cleobulus said "The mean was still the

best:

The Spartan Chilo, "know thyself," a heav'n-born phrase confessed:

Corinthian Periander taught, "Our anger to command:" "Too much of nothing," Pittacus, from Mitylene's strand: Athenian Solon this advised, "Look to the end of life: " And Bias from Prienè showed, "Bad men are the most rife: "

Milesian Thales urged that "None should e'er a surety

be:

Few were their words, but, if you look, you'll much in little see.

BUDDHISM

(Sixth century before Christ.)

THE founder of the religion known as Buddhism was Gautama, son of the Rajah of the Sakyas, an Aryan tribe, whose capital town was called Kapilavastu (identified with the modern village of Nagara), about one hundred miles northeast of Benares, in India. The date of his birth has not been determined with certainty, but it was probably not far from the middle of the sixth century before Christ. Early in life Gautama became profoundly impressed with the misery and suffering in the world, and in his twenty-ninth year he suddenly abandoned his home, his princely station, his wife and child, and devoted himself, in a life of mendicancy, to the search for knowledge that might cure the sorrows of mankind. One teacher after another disappointed his hopes, but light reached him at last, and he became Buddha that is, the Enlightened. The secret of human misery that he believed to have been revealed to him is substantially this: that suffering and sorrow are inseparable from the consciousness of individuality; that the world, acting on that consciousness, through the senses, produces in men cravings and affections which torment them, and a lust of life that life cannot satisfy. To overcome this lust of life is to win emancipation from individual consciousness, and so escape from sorrow. The means by which such a conquest is attained are right views, right feelings, right words, right behavior, right mode of livelihood, right exertion, right memory, right meditation and tranquillity; and the ten evil states of mind to be conquered are delusion of self, doubt, dependence on rites, sensuality, hatred, love of life on earth, desire for life in heaven, pride, self-righteousness, ignorance.. Buddhism, therefore, is not so much a religion as an ethical system, or system of moral culture.

THE EIGHT PRECEPTS AND TEN COMMANDMENTS OF BUDDHISM.

(From "Buddhism," by T. W. Rhys Davids.)

1. One should not destroy life.

2. One should not take that which is not given.

3. One should not tell lies.

4. One should not become a drinker of intoxicating liquors.

5. One should refrain from unlawful sexual intercourse - an ignoble thing.

6. One should not eat unseasonable food at night. 7. One should not wear garlands or use perfumes. 8. One should sleep on a mat spread on the ground. Such, they say, is the eight-fold sacred formula declared by Buddha, who came amongst us to put an end to sorrows. With regard to these commandments, the first five, placed above in the mouth of Gautama himself, . . . are called the five commandments, par excellence, and are binding on every Buddhist. These eight precepts, together with two others- viz. 9, to abstain from dancing, music, singing and stage plays; and, 10, to abstain from the use of gold and silver are the Ten Commandments binding on the mendicants. . . .

Besides the above division of moral duties into the five obligatory and three permissive precepts, there is another division into ten sins, which are:

Three of the body:

Taking life.

Theft (taking what has not been given).

Unlawful sexual intercourse.

Four of speech:

Lying.

Slander ("saying here what one hears there").

Abuse (swearing).

Vain conversation.

Three of the mind:

Covetousness.

Malice.

Skepticism.

BUDDHIST BEATITUDES.

(From a translation quoted by T. W. Rhys Davids in "Buddhism.")

A deva speaks

1. Many angels and men

Have held various things blessings,
When they were yearning for happiness.
Do thou declare to us the chief good.

Gautama answers

2. Not to serve the foolish,

But to serve the wise;

To honour those worthy of honour:
This is the greatest blessing.

3. To dwell in a pleasant land,

Good works done in a former birth,

Right desires in the heart:

This is the greatest blessing.

4. Much insight and education,
Self-control and pleasant speech,
And whatever word be well-spoken:
This is the greatest blessing.

5. To support father and mother,

To cherish wife and child,

To follow a peaceful calling:
This is the greatest blessing.

6. To bestow alms and live righteously, To give help to kindred,

Deeds which cannot be blamed:

These are the greatest blessing.

7. To abhor, and cease from sin, Abstinence from strong drink, Not to be weary in well-doing,

These are the greatest blessing.

8. Reverence and lowliness,

Contentment and gratitude,

The hearing of the Law at due seasons,
This is the greatest blessing.

9. To be long-suffering and meek,

To associate with the tranquil (i. e. Buddhist monks),

Religious talk at due seasons,

This is the greatest blessing.

10. Self-restraint and purity,

The knowledge of the Noble Truths,
The realization of Nirvana,

This is the greatest blessing.

11. Beneath the stroke of life's changes,
The mind that shaketh not,
Without grief or passion, and secure,
This is the greatest blessing.