"Those who give a personal origin to the system, now said to be the
religion of one-third of the human race, begin with Prince Siddhartha, a
young man disposed to be an ascetic, and inclined to retire from the world.
In order to wean him from his meditative tendency, his father, in order to
cure him, and prevent him from forsaking his caste, married him to a
beautiful princess, and introduced him to the splendid dissipation of a
luxurious court. A dozen years of this life convinced him that 'all was
vanity and vexation of spirit,' and he became a sort of hermit, a religious
beggar, and spent his time in dwelling upon the miseries of human life.
"He used up years in this manner, and after much reasoning, came to the
conclusion that ignorance was misery. He gave himself up to study, and at
last came to believe that he had reached the perfection of wisdom. The tree
under which he sat when he reached this result was then called
_Bodhidruma_, or the tree of intelligence; and the Buddhists believe
the spot where it grew to be the centre of the earth. A tree that passes
for this one was discovered by a Chinese, still standing twelve hundred
years after the death of the Buddha; and the bo-tree of Ceylon is regarded
as its legitimate descendant. You have been told something about it.
"In Benares, having ascertained the cause of human misery, and learned the
remedy for it, the Buddha began to preach his peculiar salvation.
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