PREFACE.


I am glad to be permitted thus to say, in a few words of introduction
to this well-meditated little volume, how pleasant and how profitable
an idea it must be considered to have designed and compiled a Buddhist
anthology. Selecting his cut and uncut jewels from very various
Buddhistic sources, Mr. Bowden has here supplied those who buy and use
the book with rubies and sapphires and emeralds of wisdom, compassion,
and human brotherhood, any one of which, worn on the heart, would be
sufficient to make the wearer rich beyond estimation for a day. The
author disclaims any attempt to set forth a corpus of Buddhistic
morality and doctrine, nor, indeed, would anything of the kind be
possible within such narrow limits; but I rejoice to observe how well
and faithfully his manifold extracts from the Sacred Books of India
and the East exhibit that ever-pervading tenderness of the great
Asiatic Teacher, which extended itself to all alike that live. This
compassionateness of Gautama, if nothing else had been illustrated by
the collection, would render it precious to possess and fruitful to
employ; but many another lofty tenet of the "Light" of Asia finds
illumination in some brief verse or maxim as day after day glides by;
and he who should mark the passage of the months with these simple
pages must become, I think, a better man at the year's end than at
its beginning. I recommend this compilation without hesitation or
reserve.

EDWIN ARNOLD.