Texts from the Buddhist canon : commonly known as Dhammapada

26 INTRODUCTION.
in the morals drawn from them, we do not wonder at the
result; nor can it he questioned that the influence of
such teaching must have heen heneficial to those affected
by it.
- With regard to the critical uses to he made of the
expressions hereia contained, it will suf&ce to add that my
own conviction expressed many years since respecting the
primitive idea of NirvSna, that it was designed to denote
a state of rest and peace, resulting from the absence of
sorrow and the delusions of sense, is in thife work com-
pletely confirmed ; nor can I see anything in Mr. D'AIwis'
remarks on the subject to weaken this conviction. However,
this contention is in the hands of other champions,
well able from their knowledge of the matter and of the
P§,li language, to conduct it to a fair issue, and with them
I leave it.
My hope is that some of our younger students (espe-
cially those already grounded in Sanscrit) may be induced
to take up the subject of " Buddhism in China." It is
one which has abundant claims on the attention of the
student of religion, but especially on the phUanthrc^pist
and the missionary,! and it is my firm belief that coih-
paratively little wiU. be done either in producing an intel-
ligible version of the Christian Scriptures in countries
where Buddhism prevails (especially China and Japan), or
in placing the doctrines of the Christian religion fairly
and clearly before the people of those countries, until
Buddhism is studied by every missionary, and its termino-
logy understood, as it ought to be, by those who con-
stantly use the same terms, in a sense more or less diverse
and sometimes directly opposite.2
The books now in England offer a large and open field
1 There are some excellent remarks remarks respecting incorrect transla-
regarding the duties of missionariea tions of reUgio'us phrases, by the late
in their work amongst Buddhists, in Dr. Ballantyne, " Christianity conthe
introduction to M. Wassilief's trastfed with Hindu Philosophy,"
" Buddhism," by M. Ed. Laboulaye, Introduction, pp. viii., ix,
pp. viii., xvL Compare also some a The expression used by the Eo-