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BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM.
hibitions of the same kind are permitted, whatever may be the belief and practice of those of the community who are better instructed, and take no part in them themselves. Ignorance is at the root of the whole system, and it must fall to pieces with the extension of knowledge and civilisation. A striking conformity in this conclusion is expressed by the missionaries of different Christian communities. Messieurs Huc and Gabet observe: "After all we have seen in our long journey, and especially during our sojourn in the monarchy of Kun Lun, we are persuaded that it is by education, not by controversy, that the conversion of these people is to be most efficaciously promoted;” and we learn from Erman, in his late travels in Siberia, that both the Russian and English missionaries at Irkutsk, and on the Selinga, had abandoned all attempts at direct conversion, and had confined themselves to the cultivation of the Mongol and Manchu languages, in order to qualify themselves to give education to the people. The process is inavoidably slow, especially in Central Asia, which is almost beyond the reach of European activity and zeal, but there is no occasion to despair of ultimate success. Various agencies are at work, both in the north and the south, before whose salutary influence civilisation is extending; and the ignorance and superstition, which are the main props of Buddhism, must be overturned by its advance.
