forth such a flower: who knows when it did before?

Gauṭama Buḍḍha, Sākya Muni, has ennobled the whole human
race. His fame is our common inheritance. His Law is the law of
Justice, providing for every good thought, word and deed its fair
reward, for every evil one its proper punishment. His law is in
harmony with the voices of Nature, and the evident equilibrium of the
universe. It yields nothing to importunities or threats, can be
neither coaxed nor bribed by offerings to abate or alter one jot or
tittle of its inexorable course. Am I told that Buḍḍhist laymen
display vanity in their worship and ostentation in their almsgiving;
that they are fostering sects as bitterly as Hinḍūs? So much the
worse for the laymen: there is the example of Buḍḍha and his
Law. Am I told that Buḍḍhist priests are ignorant, idle
fosterers of superstitions grafted on their religion by foreign kings?
So much the worse for the priests: the life of their Divine Master
shames them and shows their unworthiness to wear his yellow robe or
carry his beggar's bowl. There is the Law--immutable--menacing; it
will find them out and punish.

And what shall we say to those of another caste of character--the
humble-minded, charitable, tolerant, religiously aspiring hearts among
the laity, and the unselfish, pure and learned of the priests who know
the Precepts and keep them? The Law will find them out also; and when
the book of each life is written up and the balance struck, every good
thought or deed will be found entered in its proper place. Not one
blessing that ever followed them from grateful lips throughout their
earthly pilgrimage will be found to have been lost; but each will help
to ease their way as they move from stage to stage of Being