Professor Lanman's Lecture.

Professor Lanman gave the first of a series of three lectures on Buddhism in the Fogg Art Museum last evening, taking as his subject: "The origin and the Literature of Buddhism.- The Buddha and the Buddha-Legend."

Recent commerce and intercourse with India, said Professor Lanman, have brought the religions of the East into unusual prominence. These religions are very old, older even than Christianity; but little of them has been known until recently. In Buddhism especially, there is much that is great, worthy, and noble, and a study of that religion has an important and practical bearing upon life. The fruits of the studies in the religions of the East are the effects produced upon the thought of our time.

Buddhism has been often over and underrated. While the inhabitants of Japan and China are in a way Buddhists, they are also Confuscians. The evolution of the religion is a long story, running back in unbroken records to the Vedas of 1500 B. C.

Vedism is a pure nature religion. Its gods are natural forces deified. But this simple religion degenerated into Brahamanism a religion of priests, of the worst form which became no longer vital with the people. A system of religious orders arose regulated by the most strenuous caste laws. In these orders there were four periods; that of the religious student; the householder; the forest hermit; and the wandering beggar. Of these orders the most important were the dualistic Sankhya philosophy, and the monistic, pantheistic Vedanta which recognized one supreme being in the universe of which every man's soul is not a part, but the being itself. All these teachings had the one practical purpose of securing emancipation from the sorrows of life.

At first Buddhism was not very different from the other sects; but it was gradually elaborated. The main difference was in the personality of the great teacher Buddha.

The sources of knowledge of Buddhism are in the northern and southern literature of India. That of the south comes nearest to the personality of Buddha. The importance of the Buddha legend lies in the fact that a knowledge of Buddha's personality is necessary to understand Buddhism. The basis of the whole system is a belief in pessimism and innumerable births.

Buddha himself had a marvellous birth. At the age of thirty he retired from the world and finally attained illumination. Then he went about preaching until his death at the age of eighty. The Bo-tree temple and the stufas are great memorials with sculptures commemorating his life and teachings.