What happiness, therefore, has man? If any man should
climb to the top of a tree, or sit down on the summit of a hill, or
remain concealed in water, yet death does not allow him to escape. At
the most, man's age is a hundred years, half of which passes away in
night, half of the other half is expended in childhood and old age;
the remainder is spent in altercation, separation from those we love,
and affliction, and the soul is restless as a wave of the sea. No
one who has come into the world has escaped from affliction. It
is vain to fix one's affections on it, and therefore it is best to
cultivate and practise religion." And so, as a remedy for the evil
which he has discovered to exist upon the earth, and to work out a
successful escape from it, he sits himself down in dust and ashes,
and, mistaking the sign-post, adopts the path which leads him furthest
from the point he wishes to arrive at.
As the Hindoo is the most ancient of religions, so the Buddhist
is the one which is professed by the largest portion of the human
race.
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