From the earliest times which I can remember, I have heard the English Bible spoken of with the utmost reverence, as the undoubted word of God, as a revelation of the will, ways, and even the thoughts of the Supreme Being. Everything which it contains has been regarded as infallibly true, and the wisdom, goodness, mercy, and justice of its doctrines and laws have been judged to be unimpeachable. From the pulpit of many earnest divines I have heard innumerable sermons whose burden has been praise of, and admiration for, the morality of the Old and New Testaments, the sublimity of the language therein used, and the loftiness of the thoughts embodied. From those same teachers, and from a still greater number of laymen, I have heard the assertion repeatedly made that the Bible must be divinely inspired, because no other set of men, except those who composed its books, could write so powerfully; and depict so graphically, the wants, the woes, the pleasures, the passions, the aspirations, and the doubts of the human mind. By a great majority, if not by the whole of our imperfectly educated ministers and people, the assertion to which we here refer is raised to the position of an argument; and any opponent who ventures to question the truth of the assumption, is challenged to show a book of divinity equal or superior to the Bible.
The worthlessness of the argument might be readily shown to any one accustomed to use his reason, by pointing out that the religious books of the Ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Medea, Persians, and Etruscans, are lost to us. We may compare the assertion with that which Englishmen might have made, to the effect that the British breed of horses was superior to any other, for no one could show them a better; yet as soon as our Crusaders became acquainted with the Arabian steed, the value of the assumption was destroyed. Yet such a remark would be wholly inoperative on the mind of every bigot whose judgment of evidence is always bribed by his prejudice. Consequently, to make any serious impression upon the mind of the Bibliolater, it is desirable, if possible, to make copies of the holy images worshipped by other nations, under the name of sacred books, and to place these side by side with that grotesque production, which, for our purposes, may be compared to Diana of the Ephesians—the thing which fell down from Jupiter.
Yet even when we do bring from distant countries, to which in our complacency we give the name of "heathen," copies of their deified books, and show their equality with, or superiority to that which we are told was arranged by the disposition of angels (Acts vii. 53)—the scriptures that Paul (2 Tim. iii. 16) affirms were entirely given by inspiration of God [—Greek—], see also 1 Pet. i. 11, 12,—we are met by the assertion, if the equality is allowed, that the Pagan writings have been copied from, or are traceable to, the writers in the Old or in the New Testament.
Whenever a thoughtless theologian asserts that such a thing must be so, he is not by any means particular as to the facts upon which he bases his belief. This weakness of his is so conspicuous to the logical observer, that he sometimes feels pity at having to wound a mind so earnest as to be unable to use its reason. He almost regards himself as a man fighting a child or a weak woman. Yet men will, in their power and knowledge, deprive a baby of a bon-bon, which it is sucking eagerly, if they know that it is poisonous, and will lay violent hands upon a tender girl who, in a whirlwind of passion, is about to throw herself before a railway train. After the event both the individuals may learn to thank the roughness which saved them; and I feel sure that many an earnest religionist, who now thinks that the philosophers are treating him cruelly, by trying to deprive him of a cherished faith, will ultimately be grateful for having been induced to cease grovelling in the dust of a coarse antiquity.
If we endeavour to ascertain the basis of the belief that everything which is good must have come from the Bible, we find that it exists in the assertion that the Jews were the chosen people of God, selected by Him to receive a record of His past doings and His future desires. Hence it is argued, that all who have not been taught by the Jews, or through their influence, are without God in the world—poor, benighted pagans. To support assumptions so monstrous as this, there is not a tittle of evidence beyond the existence of certain stories in some books, said to contain a truthful record of facts. But although the theologian heaps up protestation upon asseveration until the mass attains an imposing size, the whole is not of more substantial value than a huge bubble blown by an energetic school boy. If millions could be brought to believe that such a hollow sphere was a solid, painted with the most resplendent colours obtained from the celestial mansions, it would not make it other than a film of soap and water filled with air.
Yet though the unanimous consent of myriads cannot convert foam into a solid substance, a mass of froth may be treated as if it were something better, so long as all agree not to test its qualities; and any book may in like manner be regarded as of divine origin, so long as everybody determines not to test the reality of the opinion. We can easily imagine that those who have been educated to believe in the absolute density of a bubble, must be greatly distressed when it bursts. Indeed in every mercantile community we see frequent illustrations of this. Designing men weave a plausible story, and by inflated words induce a number of thoughtless people to believe their statements, adopt their promises, and act upon their recommendation. Whilst all seems to be prosperous, every dupe repels with indignation the statement that the whole of his confraternity are deceived. If faith in the stability of a banking house could have upheld it, Overend & Gurnets would never have broken. If then faith, the most complete and child-like trust in the truth of anything,—say particularly in a certain book—will not make it valuable if it be in reality worthless, then all those who wish to feel beneath them the everlasting arms of truth, should inquire into current beliefs rather than take everything for granted.
At the time when the wealth, power, and stability of the Bank above referred to were implicitly believed in by the many, and especially trusted by its shareholders, there were, outside of its pale, many individuals who felt sure that the establishment was very shaky, and a few who were aware that it was toppling to its fall. If then, at that time, any customer or proprietor, feeling a doubt about its safety, should have endeavoured to investigate the rumours which were adverse to it; and should have acted as reason dictated, after he had weighed the alleged facts on both sides, he might have came to a safe decision and saved his money. What is true in this case may be applied to the Bible—the Bank upon which so many draw large drafts, and in whose stability they have unbounded confidence. The thoughtless may, and doubtless will, continue to trust it implicitly—the thoughtful will probably consult, not only the Bibliolaters, but those who put no faith whatever in the volume, and judge for themselves.
The fear which many men have of biblical inquiry, has for a long period struck me as being inexplicable, inasmuch as it is at variance with the assertion of these very same people, that an examination of the book must prove it to be infallibly true. But investigation into a supposed truth can only end by confirming it fully, and thus making the truth more useful; or by demonstrating that the belief entertained is untenable. It has been the dread—nay the certainty, of the latter result, which has deterred many great minds from investigating the matter. Amongst these the late Professor Faraday was conspicuous, for we learn from a letter in the Athenaeum of Jan. 7, 1870, written by one of his own personal friends, that he—perhaps the most accomplished seeker after physical truth in his time, declined firmly to search into the value of the commonly received notions respecting "the scriptures," as he felt sure that his faith in them would thereby be shaken. Yet he was illogical enough to use them as a basis for his theological teaching. He preached to others from texts in which he had no confidence; and supported his doctrines by quotations from a book which, in his secret heart, he felt was valueless as an exponent of historical truth, or orthodox teaching.
Before we proceed to the comparison between the "Dhammapada" and the Bible, it will be judicious to place fairly before the reader the points which we hope to elucidate. We wish to show, by a collation of dates and doctrines, that the two are wholly independent of each other, and as we have elsewhere remarked, that if there has been any relationship between Buddhist and Christian writings, the first have had more than two centuries' precedence over the last. We wish to compare the morality taught by Buddha, with that promulgated in the Old and New Testaments. We desire impartially to examine into the question, whether the claim for inspiration can be allowed in either one case or the other, or in both together—whether, indeed, it is possible to believe the Hebrew scriptures to be dictated by God, without giving a similar confidence to the teachings of Sakya Muni—or, assuming that there is to be found a code of pure morality or ethics which we may suppose to be of universal application, we shall endeavour to ascertain whether the Hebrews and the followers of Mary, or the disciples of the son of Maya Deva, have made the nearest approach to its discovery and establishment. Collaterally we shall examine whether Jesus has a greater claim than Buddha to be the Son of God. The Dhammapada which has recently (Trübner & Co., London, 1870*) been translated by Max Mülller from the Pali, is one of the many books which profess to give, as our Gospels and Epistles do of Christ, the teachings or precepts of Buddha. These were for some two or three centuries traditional only; but about the period, B.C. 300, many, if not most of them, were committed to writing. As far as can be ascertained, the year b.c. 246 was the period of the first Buddhist council under Asok, and shortly after this, Mahuida, a priestly son of Asokâ, went as a missionary to Ceylon; other emissaries went to Burmah, China, Japan, and it is believed elsewhere. The oral promulgation of the Dhammapada would probably begin about b.c. 560—twenty years or thereabouts before the death of Siddartha. If we turn to contemporary history in the west of Asia, we find that at this period Jerusalem was in ruins, and the Jews were captives in Babylonia—no copies of any Hebrew sacred book were known to be in existence (2 Esdras xiv. 21; 2 Maccabees ii. 1-13—see also 1 Maccabees i. 21-23), and, so far as we could learn, India was a country wholly unknown to the Shemitic race. The acquaintanceship between Hindustan and Europe seems to have been made in the time when the Greek monarch, Alexander, overthrew Darius of Persia. Alexander invaded India about b.c. 327, consequently we infer that there was no possibility of Buddha being influenced by western notions in b.c. 560.
* Buddhaghosa's Parables, translated from Burmese, by Capt
T. Rogers; with an introduction, containing Buddha's
Dhammapada, or "Path of Virtue," by Max Müller. Trübner &
Co., London, 1870.