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A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO ORIENTAL PHILOSOPHY, ART, LITERATURE AND OCCULTISM:· EMBRACING MESMERISM, SPIRITUALISM, AND OTHER SECRET SCIENCES. .. VOL. 4. No.8. MADR.AS, MAY, 1883. ?olumns, in order that justice be strictly dealt out j but l~ ra~he}' proceeds to have the M8S. handed to it for pub. lIcatlOn, opened, and carefully read before it can consent 'l'HERE IS NO REIJIGION HIGHER THAN TRUTH. to send it over to its printers. Anable article has never [Family motto of the lIfaharajahs of Benares. ] sought admission into our pages and been rejected for its advocating any of the religious doctrines or views to -J- which its conductor felt personally opposed. On the TO TIlE" DISSATISF'IED." other hand, the editor has never hesitated to give any olle of the above said religions and doctrines its dues, WE have belief in the fitness and usefulness of impar­ and speak out tho truth whether it pleased a certain fac­ tial critici1:llll, and, even at time1:l, in that of a judicious tion of its sectarian reader:s) or not. \Ve neither court onslaught upon some of the many creeds and philoso­ nor claim favonr. N or to satisfy the sentimental emo-· phies, as we have in advocating the publication of all tions and susceptibilities of some of ollr readers· do we such polemics. Any sane man acquainted with human feel prepared to allow our columns to appeal' colourless, nature, must see that this eternal" taking on faith" of least of all, for fear that our own house should be shown the lllost absurdly conflicting dogmas in our age of as 'also of glass.' " scientific progre1:ls will never do, tlH1t it is impossible • that it can last .. Our journal being devoted to the pre­ 'l'HE BUDDHIST MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND. sentation of every creed in all its naked truthfulness, and 'l'HE frequent publication of books on the subject, in resolved to favour none in preference to another, its England, of recent yefLrs, bas evidenced the stronginter­ columns are therefore open to writers of all and nearly est now felt by the cnltivated classes in the study of every creed known":"-at least on hear-say....,,-to the civilized Buddhism. 'l'hat this interest grows rather tItan declines world. Thus there is some chance for all, of getting, is plainly indicated by the following report of a meeting by comparing notes, to the bottom of more than one of the Hoyal Asiatic Society in London, held quite mystery, and of eliminating a few truths out of this j un­ recently with distinguished people present, which we gle of more or less philosophical and metaphysical con­ reprint from an English paper :- cepts. We have seen the folly of the system of favour­ At the last meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, Sir Bartle Frere, itism and sectarianism to the exclusion of all other opi­ prosident, in the chair, His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught, nions prevalent among most of the periodicals in India j K. G., Sir Thomas Ilrassey, M. P., and Mr. Cas·sels were elected resi. and we are resolved that in the management of the Theoso­ dont members, and Her (?) Highness the Maharanee of Oodeypore, Lieutenant-Colonel C. Maclean Smith, and Mr. W. M. Ramsay, non· ph£st the rule of religious illlpa,rtiality shall be strictly resident members. "Mr. Arthur Lillie, M. R. A. S., read a paper" On observed. We form the circle of its contributors from the Iluddhism of Ceylon," in which he combated the idea advanced by a. the ranks of Heathen and Christian, of Materialist!3 and section of writers, headed by Mr. Rhys Davids, that the ancient books of Ceylon teach nothing but annihilation, non-existence of the soul, and Spiritualists, Theists, Atheists and Polytheists, men of abi­ atheism. lIe cited the" 'revigga Sutta," in which Buddha is questioned lity, in short, wherever to be found, without enquiring on the subject of tllat union with Ill'l1hma which it was the great object into their faith and without the smallest preference of the Brahmin ascetie,in Buddha's day, to gain. Buddha, instead of answeriug that the Supreme Urahma is non-existent, and that those who given to personal partialities or antipathies. N ever­ sought union with him were unwise, proclaimed distinctly the contrary theless, we have not hitherto been able to· satisfy all proposition. Mr. Lillie thon urged that the charges of annihilation, &c., our readers, nor, our correspondents either. In the opi­ IJl'ought against Buddha by Mr. Rhys Davids were founded on an erro· nion of the former, our columns and editorials which are neous reading of the Buddhist ideas about Karma and the Skandas. 'l'lwse, he st.ated, cease liot on the death of the individual, but on his expected to acquaint our subscribers with every new-fan­ attaining spiritual awakomnont. A passage in the Drahma I' Jala Sutta," gled doctrine, with the exposition of every religion old milch relied on by Mr. Davids, was then cOlllrmred with its context, and 01' new fo}' the neces::;ity of comparison, has, at the samo it was shown that the doctrine of the annihilation of hnman beings was pronounced as heretical as that of futnre conscious existence. Mr. time, to remain" goody goody," never treading upon the Lillie, iu· conclnsion, e"prossed the opinion thut the northern and toes of the creed under analysis, nor expressing an hono1:lt southern systems should be compared together, as. by these means alone, opinion upon its professors. With our contributors it is tI,e archaic and true Buddhism could be detached from its later still WOl·se. Weare either to be deluged with the rllb­ accretion. hi::;h that can find admission to the columns of no othor This paragra.ph correctly indicates the antagonism periodical, or stand accused of "favouritism," something between the views of the two gt'cat representatives of we have altogether and strenuously avoided. To those Buddhism in modern Bnglish literature. Both Mr. Lillie contributors whom the present cap will fit, we can answer and Mr. Hhys Davids have struggled to divine the real but the following: "Gentlemen, onr Magazine is by no meaning of Buddhism from the exoteric books and paperl:! means intended to be a refuge for the destitnte, an to which they have had access, and, broadly speaking, MI'. omnium gathermn for those who have to satisfy an old Davids has come to the conclusion that Buddhism must grudge j nor is it a receptacle for any and every thing mean 'to teach annihilation and non-existence of the soul, which may not be able to find hospitality even in its own because it entirely ignores the idea of a personal God, sectarian joui·nals. The Theosophist does not take for its while Mr. Lillie argnes that because it certainly does fOllndation-prinyipl~ the, idea that qec,tuse an~ atheistical not teach annihilation, but, Oll the contrary, says a quantity artiole has been rejected by a paper conducted by It of things that dil'eetly relate to a continued existence of theist) it must) therefore) find room in those impartial the sonl in other states of being after this life, the'rejore 182 THE THEOSOPHIST. [May; 1883. in· reality it must intend to preach a personal God, greatest truths that have hitherto unfortunately escaped however little it may sa.y on the subject. the notice of medical men of almost aU countries. For . On these lines this very pretty controversy may go on want of this truth alone, immense quantities of drugs are for ever without either party being in the least danger brought down .from .the remotest recesses of the globe, of defeat at the hands of the other. Mr. Lillie will never manufactured mto tInctures, extracts, powders, globules di~ up from Buddh.ist literature any declaration of the triturations, oils, plasters, and ointments, and are ad~ eXIstence of a personal God with which to crush Mr. ministered within and without the human bodies whim Davids, and Mr. Davids will never find chapter, and verse indisposed, no matter however unpleasant they might be for his theory about the nihilistic significance of Buddhist to the senses. '1'his truth at first came to light from the doctrine with which to crush Mr. Lillie. observations of some of olir Indian sages,and is. now The futility of the argument turns on the ground­ making way for us to discard henceforth all gross matter­ lessness of the assumption that the question about the ex­ solid, liquid or gaseous-from the treatment of diseases istence of a Supreme Being in the sense of an intelligent which our frame is liable to. The dilatation of this truth entity, whether with limbs and features or without, con­ has laid the foundation of a new system of treatment sciously willing the Universe to come into shape and which I like to term Magnetopathy or the Magnetic activity out of nothing,-has any thing really to do with system of treatment of diseases. , the question whether human souls have a conscious sur­ Before proc~eding to elucidate and il!ustrate the theory vival after death. Weare now concerned, in these few of the MagnetiC system of treatment, It seems necessary lines, merely with what Buddhism thinks,-not with the to give the public a succinct account of the origin and tremendous questions involved themselves. And surely progress of the theory in my mind. While I was a boy, Mr. Davids must see if he will look at the matter in that I invariably found my mother rebuking her children and light, that Buddhism cannot deny.

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