at the period preceding the disruption of the Roman empire, when the last generations of a mighty nation revelled in the undisturbed enjoyment of the luxuries transmitted from their more energetic ancestors, and the votaries of pleasure were hurried on towards the goal of eternity amidst scenes of revelry that, in the rapidity of their succession, the seductiveness of their character, and the magnificence of their preparation, will probably have no parallel so long as the world shall endure. By Tertullian were written: De Cultu Foeminarum; Ad Uxorem; De Virginibus Velandis. By Cyprian: De Disciplina et Habitu Virginum. By Ambrose: De Virginibus; De Virginis Institutione; De Hortatione ad Virginitatem; and, doubtful, De Virginis Forma Vivendi; De Virginis Lapsu. By Chrysostom: Quod Regulares Foeminae Viris cohabitare non debent; In Eos qui Sorores adoptivas habent; De Virginitate; Ad Viduam juniorem. By Gregory Nyssen: De Virginitate vera et incorrupta.* And these works were in addition to many allusions to the same subjects in their letters, homilies, and other writings. The "canonical virgins" and "virgins of the church," are recognized by Tertullian and Cyprian; and in the fourth century monastic establishments for females were introduced. They were also called ascetriae, monastriae, castimoniales, sanctimoniales, and nonnae. The inmates were not obliged to remain for life in this seclusion, and in certain cases were permitted to retract their vows; but they could not return to the world without exposing themselves to great scandal. It was said of them (Hieron. Ep. 97) "ut aut nubant, si se non possunt continere; aut contineant, si nolunt nubere." Monks or nuns might profess their obedience to a particular monastic rule in the hands of an abbot or abbess; but the consecration of a virgin was reserved expressly for the bishop. We learn from Ambrose (De Virg. Inst.) that when a virgin was professed she presented herself before the altar, when the bishop preached to her, and gave her the veil which distinguished her from other virgins; but her hair was not cut off as in the case of monks. In many instances the nunnery afforded a secure retreat to the unprotected female from the violence of the monsters in human shape who then almost every where abounded.

In some instances, monks and nuns resided in the same convent. It is said in Tanner's Notitia Monastica that, after the Conquest, it was usual for the great abbies to build nunneries upon some of their *Cave's Lives of the Fathers.

manors, which should be priories to them, and subject to their visitation. In some instances the nunneries belonged to a different order from the house to which they were subject; as at Shouldham, where the canons observed the rule of Augustine, whilst the nuns were under that of Benedict. Lingard says that, during the first two centuries after the conversion of our ancestors, nearly all nunneries were built upon the principle of those attached to Fontevrault, which contained both monks and nuns under the government of an abbess, the men being subject to the women. The abbey of St. Hilda, at Whitby, was of this kind. In one part was a sisterhood of nuns, and in another a confraternity of monks, both of whom obeyed the authority of the abbess. "There were two monasteries at Wimborne," says Ralph of Fulda, who wrote the life of St. Lioba, "formerly erected by the kings of the country, surrounded with strong and lofty walls, and endowed with competent revenues. Of those, one was designed for clerks, the other for females; but neither (for such was the law of their foundation) was ever entered by any individual of the other sex. No woman could obtain permission to come into the monastery of the men; nor could the men come into the convent of the women, with the exception of the priests who entered to celebrate mass, and withdrew the moment the service was over.' The princess Bridget, of Sweden, built a monastery in which she placed sixty nuns, and, in a separate enclosure, thirteen priests, four deacons, and eight lay-brothers. The men were subject to the prioress in temporals; but in spirituals the women were under the jurisdiction of the friars, as the order was instituted principally for the women, and the men were only admitted to render them spiritual assistance. The convents were separated by an enclosure; but so near, that both classes made use of the same church, in which the nuns kept choir above in a doxal, and the men underneath, without their being able to see each other. Sion House, near London, was the only monastery of this order in England.†

In Italy there are orders, as of the Collatines, or Oblates, the members of which reside in a monastery, but make no vows except a promise of obedience. They can go abroad, inherit property, and the restrictions under which they are placed are few. Some abbies of this description are said to be filled by ladies of rank.

* Lingard's Anglo-Saxon Church.

† Alban Butler. Oct. 8.

XVIII. THE SACRED BOOKS.

The Budhas, the sacred books, and the priesthood, are regarded as the three most precious gems. They are all associated in the threefold formulary repeated by the Budhist when he names, as an act of worship, the triad to which he looks as the object of his confidence and his refuge. There is thus among the Budhists the same reverence paid to the number three, that we witness in nearly all ancient systems, as in the Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva of the Brahmans; the Amoun-ra, Amoun-neu, and Sevek-ra of the Egyptians; and the Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto of the Greeks

and Romans.

The importance of the possession of a written code, regarded as having been given by inspiration, may be seen in the fact that no system of religion has yet become extinct that has presented a record of this description. However absurd the document may be in itself, or however unintelligible the style in which it is written, it has appeared as the palladium of the system it contains. Hence the missionaries to the east have a difficulty to contend with that was not presented to the early messengers of the cross in any of the countries where they principally laboured. But from the same cause the priests of India are encumbered by weapons that may be wrested from their hands, and used to their own destruction. When it is clearly proved to them that their venerated records contain absurdities and contradictions, they must of necessity conclude that their origin cannot have been divine; and the foundation of the systems being once shaken, the whole mass must speedily fall, leaving only the unsightly ruin, as a monument of man's folly, when he endeavours to form a religion from the feculence of his own corrupt heart, or the fancies of his own perverted imagination. And there is another thought that must not be forgotten. Whenever the Scriptures have been translated into any language, from that time there have always been individuals speaking that language who have believed in the truths they contain, so long as the dialect has continued in use as a vernacular medium of intercourse.

In our notice of the sacred books of the Budhists we propose to consider-1. Their names and divisions. 2. The history of their transmission. 3. The honours they receive and the benefits they confer in return.

I. Names and Divisions.-The second of the three great treasures

is called Dhammo, or in Singhalese, Dharmma. This word has various meanings, but is here to be understood in the sense of truth. It is not unfrequently translated" the law," but this interpretation gives an idea contrary to the entire genius of Budhism. The Dharmma is therefore emphatically, the truth. In common conversation this venerated compilation is called the Bana; the books in which it is written are called bana-pot; and the erection in which it is preached or explained is called the bana-maduwa. The word bana means literally the word; from the root bana, or wana, to sound. In the names that have been given by different religionists to their sacred books there is a considerable similarity of meaning, which is generally marked by simplicity. Thus, we have the Scriptures, or the writings; the law, torah, from the root torah, instruc tion; the Talmud, from the root lamad, to learn; the Gemara, from a root of similar meaning, gamar, to learn; the Mishna, from the root shamah, to repeat; the Koran, from the root karaa, to read; the Zand Avasta, from zand, the Persian language, and avasta, word; and the Veda, from vida, to know. The different portions of the Dharmma, when collected together, were divided into two principal classes, called Suttáni and Abhidhammáni. These two classes are again divided into three collections, called respectively in Singhalese:-1. Winaya, or discipline. 2. Sútra, or discourses. 3. Abhidharmma, or pre-eminent truths. The three collections, as already intimated (page 1), are called in Pali, Pitakattayan, from pitakan, a chest or basket, and tayo, three; or in Singhalese, Tunpitaka. A Glossary and a Commentary on the whole of the Pitakas were written by Budhagósha, about the year A. D. 420. They are called in Pali, Atthakathá, or in Singhalese, Atuwawa. The Rev. D. J. Gogerly has in his possession a copy of the whole of the sacred text," and the principal of the ancient comments, which, however, form but a small portion of the comments that may exist." As this gentleman resided in 1835, and some subsequent years, at Dondra, near which place the most learned of the priests in the maritime provinces in Ceylon are found, he had admirable facilities for securing a correct copy of the Pitakas. Mr. Turnour states that the Pali version of the three Pitakas consists of about 4,500 leaves, which would constitute seven or eight volumes of the ordinary size, though the various sections are bound up in different forms for the convenience of reference.

1. The Winaya Pitaka contains the regulations of the priesthood.

It is said to be the life of the religion of Budha, as where discipline is at an end, religion is at an end. It is divided into five books:1. Párájiká. 2. Páchiti. 3. Maha Waggo, or Maha Waga. 4. Chúla Waggo, or Chula Waga. 5. Pariwárá Pátá. "The Párájiká and Páchiti contain the criminal code; the Maha Waggo and Chúla Waggo the ecclesiastical and civil code; and the Pariwárá Pátá is a recapitulation and elucidation of the preceding books, in a kind of catechetical form."

This Pitaka contains 169 banawaras, which appear to resemble the sidarim into which the books of the Old Testament were divided by the Jews, being the portion read in the synagogue upon one Sabbath day. The first sixty-four banawaras constitute the Bhikkhuni-wibhango; the next eighty, the Maha Waggo; and the last twenty-five, the Pariwárá Pátá. As each banawara contains 250 stanzas, called gáthás or granthas, composed of four pádas, or thirty-two syllables, in this Pitaka there must be 42,250 stanzas. The Commentary on it, called Samantapásadiká, contains 27,000 stanzas. Thus, in the whole of the Winaya Pitaka, including the text and the comment, there are 69,250 stanzas.

The Párájiká occupies 191 leaves; the Páchiti 154; the Maha Waggo 199; the Chula Waggo 196; and the Pariwárá Pátá 146; each page containing about nine lines, and averaging 1 foot 9 inches in length.

2. The Sútra Pitaka contains seven sections. It is said in the commentary called Sumangala Wilásiní, as translated by Turnour, that the Suttan is so called "from its precise definition of right; from its exquisite tenor, from its collective excellence, as well as from its overflowing richness; from its protecting (the good), and from its dividing as with a line (or thread)." For each of these epithets various reasons are given. It is said to overflow, "because it is like unto the milk streaming from the cow." It is like a line, "because as the line (suttan) is a mark of definition to carpenters, so is this suttan a rule of conduct to the wise." In the same way that flowers strung together upon a thread, or line, are neither scattered nor lost, "so are the precepts which are contained herein united by this (suttan) line." The seven sections, called sangis, are as follows:-1. The Díghanikáyo, or Dik-sangi, written upon 292 leaves, with eight lines on each page, and 1 foot 10 inches long. It contains three warggas, Sílaskhanda, Maha, and Páti, and has 64 banawaras, or 16,000 stanzas, including 34 sútras of greater