diseases; and they therefore embrace the priesthood. But you are in perfect health; the digestive faculty is unimpaired; why then did you embrace this ascetic course? There is the affliction arising from the loss of property; men lose their possessions and wealth; they therefore embrace the priesthood. But you belong to a respectable family in this brahman village; you have not suffered any loss of property; then why do you endure these privations? There is the affliction arising from the loss of friends; men lose their children and other relatives; they therefore embrace the priesthood. But you are a stranger to this affliction. Then, tell me, why did you become a priest?"

Rathapála replied, "O king! four aphorisms have been declared by Budha, and it was because I understood them, saw and heard them, that I became a priest. They are: 1. The beings in this world are subject to decay, they cannot abide long. 2. They have no protection, no adequate helper. 3. They have no real possessions; all that they have they must leave. 4. They cannot arrive at perfect satisfaction or content; they are constantly the slaves of evil desire." The king enquired what was the meaning of these aphorisms, and Rathapála explained them thus: "When you, Kórawya, were twenty or twenty-five years of age, were you not able to subdue the horse, drive the chariot, and bend the bow; and were you not then a powerful warrior?" The king replied in the affirmative; but when Rathapála asked him if he was the same now, he confessed that his former energy had passed away; and when the priest further enquired how this had come to pass, he said, "I am now old; I am eighty years of age; if I think to place my foot here, it goes there; I am feeble." "It was on this account," said Rathapála, "that Budha declared: the being who is resident in this world is carried away by decay, or old age; he cannot remain long." The king said, "What Budha has declared is true; but he has also said that though there may be an army to defend the monarch against his enemies, there is no protection against the approach of sickness; what is the meaning of this?" The priest enquired, “Are you subject to any incurable disease?" and the king said, "Yes; I am subject to such a disease; sometimes my sons and other relatives assemble around me and exclaim: The king Kórawya will now die." "Well then," asked the priest, “if at such a time you were to say to your relatives, or to the nobles in attendance, Help me to endure my pain; divide it among yourselves,

and take part of it in my stead;-would they be able thus to assist you?" The king declared that they would not. "Therefore," said the priest, "Budha has declared that man has no protection, no adequate helper." The king again said, "Budha has declared that though a man may have much wealth, it is not his own; though he may possess it for a time, he must leave it; what is the meaning of this?" "You, O king," said Rathapála, "have abundance; much wealth and many attendants; when you enter the other world, will you still possess them, or will they be the property of another?" The king confessed that he must leave them, and that they would belong to another. "It was on this account," Rathapála said, "Budha declared that man has no real possessions." The king continued, "You have told me that Budha has said: The mind is not satisfied, or contented; it still covets more; what does this mean?" "Suppose" said the priest, "a man worthy of all credence were to come from the eastern part of Kuru, and say that in that part of the country he had seen many nations, with cities, armies, wealth, and maidens beautiful as the celestial déwís, what would you do?" The king said, he should go and conquer them. The priest put the same question relative to each of the other quarters; and upon receiving the same reply he said, "It was on this account Budha has declared that the mind is never satisfied; it is always wanting more; and it was because I learnt these truths that I embraced the priesthood."

Rathapála then repeated these stanzas :-"There are some men who have much property; but on account of the false medium through which all things appear to them, it seems as if it were little; they are covetous of more, and are continually trying to add to their possessions. There are kings who subdue the whole of the four quarters, even to the borders of the sea; but they are still not content; they wish to cross the ocean, that they may find out more worlds to conquer, but they are never satisfied with what they acquire, and the craving continues until death. There is no means of satisfying the desire of the worldling. When he dies, his friends go about with disordered hair, and weep; they exclaim, He is gone, he is dead, and they then enwrap the body in cloth, and burn it upon the pyre. He cannot take with him either property or wealth; even the cloth in which he is enwrapped is burnt. When about to die, neither relatives, friends, nor companions, can afford him any protection. He who dies is accompanied only by his merit and de

merit; nothing else whatever goes with him; he cannot take with him children, or women, or wealth, or lands. Decay is not prevented by wealth, nor is old age; the life continues only for a little time. The rich and the poor, the wise and the unwise, men of every condition, must equally encounter death; there is no one to whom its embrace does not come. The unwise man trembles at the approach of death; but the wise man is unmoved. Wisdom is therefore better than wealth; of all possessions it is the chief; it is the principal means by which evil desire is destroyed, and purity is attained. The cleaving to sentient objects is the cause of many dangers, and prevents the reception of nirwána. For these reasons I have embraced the priesthood."

V. ORDINATION.

It has been said that "ordination is nothing but a word borrowed from the Roman empire, in which it is the legitimate and customary mode of designating the institution of a person to some honourable office; and this was the original church meaning, as both Eichhorn and Rothe have shown."* The act by which admission into the priesthood is received among the Budhists may therefore not improperly be termed ordination. It binds the recipient to observe certain ordinances or rules; but it is to be regarded as conveying an obligation to refrain from certain usages, rather than as imposing a class of duties that he is to perform. On the part of the candidate it is an acknowledgment of the excellence of asceticism, with an implied declaration that its obligations shall be observed; and on the part of the priests by whom the ceremony is conducted, it is an acknowledgment that the candidate is eligible to the reception of the office, and that, so long as he fulfils its duties, he will be received as a member of the ascetic community, and be entitled to partake in all its rights and privileges.

The mode in which the ceremony is conducted is extremely simple, as appears from the formulary of admission contained in the work called Kammawáchan, of which there is a Singhalese translation. A sangha, or chapter, having been called, the candidate is asked if the requisites of the priest (as the alms-bowl, robes,

* Bunsen's Church of the Future.

&c. that have been previously prepared and deposited in the place of assembly) belong to him. On answering in the affimative, he is commanded to remain in a place that is pointed out; and he is then asked if he is free from certain diseases that are named, including the leprosy, epilepsy, &c.; if he is a human being, a man, and a freeman; if he is out of debt; if he is free from the king's service; if he has the consent of his parents; if he has attained the age of twenty years; and if he is provided with the priestly requisites. He is then asked his own name, and the name of his upádya (the priest by whom he is presented for ordination). These things being ascertained, the moderator commands him to advance; and the candidate, addressing the assembly, says respectfully, thrice, "I request upasampadá." The moderator then makes known that he is free from the impediments that would bar his admission to the priesthood, that he possesses the requisites, and that he requests upasampadá; and thrice calls out, "Let him who assents to this request be silent; let him who dissents, now declare it !” If the assembly be silent the moderator infers that consent is given; upon which he repeats to the candidate the more important of the rules by which he will have to abide-relating to the food he may receive, the garments he may wear, the place in which he may reside, the medicaments he may use in case of sickness, and the crimes that involve expulsion from the priesthood. It is declared that these ordinances are worthy to be kept unto the end of life; to which the candidate assents, without, however, making any promise or taking any vow. From this time he is regarded as an upasampadá, from upa, exceeding, and sampadá, gain, advantage.

It is not unusual for the candidate to put off the robe he had worn as a novice, and to reassume for the nonce the dress of a layman; his body is anointed with sandal and other fragrant substances; and with banners and music his friends accompany him to the place of ordination. It is said that upon some occasions the monarch of Ceylon, the two adigars, and the four nobles next in rank, accompanied the procession through the principal streets of Kandy. In like manner, the nun is arrayed in her gayest attire on the day when she finally abandons the world, and becomes what is called, though the name is too often a solemn mockery, "The spouse of Christ."

The ceremony of upasampadá is sometimes called by Europeans the superior ordination, implying that there are two orders in the

Budhist priesthood; but this mode of speaking is incorrect, as the sámanéra is regarded only as a candidate or novice, and requires no other permission for the wearing of the yellow robe than the sanction of an upasampadá priest.

In Ceylon, ordination is seldom conferred by the established community in any place but the city of Kandy, where the maha-náyaka, or arch-priest, and the anu-náyaka, his deputy, reside; but this is an innovation similar to the taking away of the power of ordination from "the hands of the presbytery," and confining it to hands episcopal, and has no sanction whatever from the earlier usages of Budhism.

Upasampadá confers no mystic power, nor is it regarded as an indelible order. The instances are numerous in which the priest returns to the state of a laic, frequently remaining in this state until death; but at other times returning to the profession; which he is permitted again to assume without being regarded as having committed a breach of the law by his temporary retirement. Indeed, it must be evident, upon a consideration of the subject, that no office or authority conferred by man, in that which relates to matters that demand the consent of the will, and righteousness of life, for their right fulfilment, can be properly indelible. The master may coerce his slave; and the liege lord, his subjects; and an unwilling service or a constrained obedience may as effectually carry into effect the command of an earthly superior as the most affectionate submission; but the bad man, or the man who after ordination has received conscientious scruples relative to the ministry, cannot be coerced into a right discharge of the duties of this sacred office. This conclusion does not at all affect the case of man's responsibility to God; when "a dispensation of the gospel" has been committed to any one, it is at his peril if he "entangleth himself with the affairs of this life;" he may not be imperatively confined to any particular course of discipline; he may modify his creed or change his community; but the work of the Lord is not to be neglected, nor the ministry of the word forsaken, so long as there is the ability to fulfil the exercise in an efficient manner.

By an express ordinance of Budha his disciples are permitted to retire from the priesthood under certain circumstances; such as their inability to remain continent; impatience of restraint; a wish to enter upon worldly engagements; the love of parents or friends; or doubts as to the truth of the system propounded by Budha. This permission would, however, open the way for the practice of