tanán, the six organs of sense (the eye, the ear, the tongue, the nose, the body, and the mind) are produced; on account of the six bodily organs, phassa, contact (the action of the organs), is produced; on account of contact, wédaná, sensation, is produced; on account of sensation, tanhá, desire, is produced; in consequence of desire, upádána, attachment, is produced; in consequence of attachment, bhawa, existence, is produced; in consequence of a state of existence, játi, birth, is produced; in consequence of birth, decay, death, sorrow, weeping, grief, discontent, and vexation are produced. Even this is the origin of the complete catenation of sorrow."

The Buddhists recognize three phases of being-1. Kama, in the worlds belonging to which (places of punishment included) pleasures and pains result from the exercise of the senses; 2. Rupa, worlds in which are organization and intellect, but no senses; 3. Arupa, worlds in which there are no bodily forms, but sensation, perception, discrimination, and consciousness. There are four of these worlds, the last being a sort of dreamland, in which consciousness is imperfect, there being neither consciousness nor unconsciousness. "Were a sentient being to pass through all these states of existence, in all these worlds, the period would extend to 231,628 maha kalpas, and 12,285,000,000 years."

The nirwána is the state of freedom, from wána, attachment, or desire. "The great rishis (prophets) who are free from wána, desire, call that nirwána which is achutan, that from which there is no going (no transmigration); achchantán, that which has no boundary (neither birth nor death); asankhatán, that which is not affected by cause or effect; anuttara, that to which there is not anything superior; and padán, that to which there is nothing to excel it in advantage.

In Ceylon the nirwána seems to be synonymous with annihilation, and Buddhism is described as atheistic, from its not recognizing any one paramount and supreme self-existing being. It must be a weary soul that can long for the eternal cessation of all sensation and activity, as its hoped for rest; and a religion which inculcates the destruction, instead of the regulation and right direction, of desire, must oppose a tremendous obstacle to social progress; but Buddhism has more theistic aspects in Cochin China, Siam, and Thibet, at least among the more cultivated classes; and as they become gradually acquainted with European science, their implicit credence in numberless absurdities must pass away.

From Mr. Spence Hardy's book, which was originally published in Ceylon, we find he is engaged in a most important controversy with the Buddhists. He assails their religion with all the weapons of rationalistic criticism, and the native priests,

assisted pecuniarily by the King of Siam and a local chief, use the printing press in their defence. Thus we have a very remarkable collision of the western and eastern minds, from which beneficial effects of the highest moment may happily arise.

The Buddhist views of the universe indicate their origin in a pre-scientific period, when mystical imaginations took the place of accurate observation. Boundless systems of worlds, Sakwalas, scattered through space in groups of twos and threes, can all be seen by Buddha, who can tell what is transacting in any one if he wills to know it. "In the centre of each system is a mountain called Sinéru, or Maha Meru. It is 1,680,000 miles from its base to its summit, half of which mass is below and half above the surface of the ocean. On each side it is of a different colour, being like silver towards the east, and like a sapphire towards the south. . . . . It is supported on the three-peaked Trikuta rock, like a vessel upon a tripod." It is also said to be firmly clasped by them as by a pair of pincers. The three rocks rest upon a world of stone. On the summit of Maha Meru is the heaven of Sekra; in the body of the earth are eight places of suffering. Between Meru and the Sakwala ridge are seven circles of rocks, with seven seas between them, and the waters of the seas do not evaporate, and no rain falls in them. The first world is 2,400,000 miles thick. At its base is a stone world, impervious to water, 1,200,000 miles thick, and above it is the world of the earth, which has the same thickness, and below it is the world of water, 4,800,000 miles thick, and below that the world of wind, 9,600,000.

Each Sakwala has a sun and moon. The sun is 500 miles in height, length, and breadth, and its circumference is 1,500,000 miles. The moon is 490 miles in height, length, and breadth, and its circumference 1470 miles, etc., etc.

Buddhist astronomy, physical geography, and natural history proceed in this absurd style, offering an easy victory to real science wherever members of the Buddhist faith can be induced to study it, and to apply its teachings fairly and honestly to the correction of this preposterous legend.

Eclipses are occasioned by a monster nearly 50,000 miles high, who sometimes hides the sun and moon in his mouth, and sometimes covers them with his hand.

It is supposed that Buddha has passed, and will pass through endless forms of existence, for the benevolent purpose of teaching sentient beings the way to permanent peace the nirwana which we have described; but, as might be expected, the recorded sayings of Buddha are not consistent with the pretensions of such enormous and varied experiences.

The Buddhist method of arriving at truth is one which necessarily passes out of public favour, as scientific and industrial civilization ensue. Solitary meditation in lonely places, carried to a certain point, is expected to bring comfort to the devotee; but he still retains reasoning and investigation, which a continuance of the ascetic process takes away and replaces by a condition of pleasurable intuition. A third process of solitary meditation, if successful, removes joy, gladness, and sorrow, and diffuses through the whole system a perfect tranquillity; and after a fourth process of the same kind, all reasoning, and all attachment to sensuous objects being removed, purity and enlightenment of mind engross the Buddhist saint, like a garment that covers him from head to foot. That those who can sustain the physical discomforts of this route to "perfection," arrive at the most complete and egotistic self-satisfaction, is evidenced not only by Buddhist devotees, but by the ascetic mystics of all ages and of all creeds; but whatever may be the precise dogmas of the superstition that sanctions such practices, they usually lead to the same result, the degradation of the individual, and his withdrawal from the performance of all the duties and obligations imposed upon man as a social being. The ideal of perfection held up before a community that accepts any of the varieties of such a faith is of the most mischievous kind. It renounces duty as well as enjoyment, and looks to annihilation or inactivity as its ultimate reward!

Mr. Spence Hardy attacks the Buddhists by scientific criticism. He tells them that the personal existence of Gotama himself is open to doubt; that all the notions ascribed to him concerning the physical condition of the universe are provably incorrect; that the books in which the legends and opinions of Buddhism are set forth cannot be historical, because they state things which are impossible, and were not written till long after the events they pretend to describe. So far as they are able, the Buddhists reply, and thus the controversy goes on.

Railways, irrigation works, better pay for labour, and the opening prospects of personal advancement to those who are intelligent and industrious-these are the circumstances which seem likely to raise the Oriental mind when they can be brought to bear upon it. The superstitions of Buddhism and Brahminism belong to particular conditions of society, and experience seems to show that extensive changes in speculative thought can only be effected when other changes have prepared the way. The difference between the Oriental and European point of view is enormous, and hitherto no European race has succeeded well in governing and improving Orientals, though

occasionally some gifted individual, like the late Sir C. Napier, in Scinde, has been of wonderful use. Perhaps the industrial development of India may lead the natives to do their part towards reforming themselves. No amount of European benevolence can be a substitute for self-action, and the conservatism of Eastern nations can only be overthrown by movements that develop new interests and create new wants.

KAFFIR PROMISE AND CAPABILITY.

BY DR. MANN, F.R.A.S., F.R.G.S., F.E.S.L., SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION IN NATAL.

(With a Tinted Plate.)

IN a recent number of the INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER an allusion was made to the curious fact that there is a kind of education going on even among the wild Kaffirs, in consequence of the lives of gossip and of incessant talk that the men lead; and that this becomes at once apparent when the features of the young men are compared with the features of the old men, the countenances of the young men being commonly wild, furtive, and unintelligent, and the countenances of the old men being as commonly gentle, astute, and sagacious. This fact is illustrated in the plate of Types of Zulu Kaffirs that accompanies the present number. Figure 3 is the portrait of a young man of Ngoza's people, taken by photography at the chief's kraal, near the base of Table mountain, within sixteen miles of the city of Maritzburg; and Figure 4 is the portrait of Umshiyane, an old man of the same clan, taken by photography at Maritzburg. Figure 3 may be deemed a fair type of the young wild Kaffir of Natal, and Umshiyane is a fair specimen of what the young wild Kaffirs of Natal become after they have gossipped together for half a century.

Figures 1 and 2 of this same plate illustrate another scarcely less interesting fact in connection with Kaffir features, namely, that there are two very opposite types occasionally developed with great distinctness even in the same familiesthe one having the flat nose, projecting jaw, thick lips, and low cerebral development of the pure negro race; and the other having the small jaw, sharp features, prominent nose, and full capacious foreheads, that must be referred to some higher form of organization. It is not possible to have any extended acquaintance with the Kaffirs of Natal, without feeling that they have much in them that is common to themselves and to the negro. But it is equally apparent that they have

also much that the true negroes want, and that at times comes out in sufficient force to entirely mask the negro organization and blood. There can scarcely be a doubt that the Kaffirs of Natal and its neighbourhood are a composite people, formed by the engrafting of some nobler organization upon the negro stock, and that there is continually a developing out of the leading characteristics of both the lower and the higher element in different individuals. Figure 1 may be taken as a pictorial representation of the lower type, although without the full development of jaw that is often encountered. It is the portrait of a man of the Amabaca tribe, a people who originally dwelt between the site on which Maritzburg now stands and the Umgeni river, and who were driven from that position, at the time of the Zulu invasion, to the river Umzimkulu, at the south-western frontier of the colony, where they now dwell, partly within and partly beyond the British territory. Figure 2 illustrates the higher type of Kaffir organization. It is the portrait of Umkalipa, a subordinate chieftain, who is often seen at the seat of the Colonial Government, and who not infrequently proves a useful man to the authorities. Both these portraits are from photographs taken in Maritzburg by the author of this paper, and both have been very admirably and exactly copied by the engraver.

It is matter of familiar observation that the leading characteristics of the negro organization are very much more softened on the eastern side of the great African continent than they are on its western side. This seems to indicate that the modifying influence is in some way connected with geographical position-that it lies in the east, or more exactly in the northeast. Professor Huxley believes that the Kaffirs are a composite race, mingling distinct elements in their blood, and is of opinion that there has been a migration from the north-east. It looks very much indeed as if some people of higher organization than the true negro, but not disinclined to amalgamate with them, had come from the north, possibly somewhere among the highlands of Abyssinia, and passing through the equinoctial region of this side of the continent, the natural seat of the negro, had mingled with them there, and sent a mixed offset towards the south, where the Kaffir tribes are now found. It is not unworthy of note that Mr. W. C. Palgrave, the great modern authority on Arabian matters, found a people in the province of Oman who present many points of resemblance to the Kaffirs of the highest type. Mr. Palgrave considers that the inhabitants of the central and northern provinces of Arabia are Ismaelitic, and of true Asiatic origin; but that the inhabitants of the southern province and Oman are of different extraction, and come primarily from the high