into Nipán."

The pantheism of Brahminism had by long operation produced that sluggishness of mind—its legitimate fruit—and confounded the Deity with his works, and making it appear that the aggregate of creation is itself God. In opposition to this, Budhism produced the doctrine that all forms are mere illusions, and that will, purpose, action, feeling, thought, desire, love, hatred, and every other attribute that can be predicated of the mind, is unstable, and unreal, and therefore cannot be associated with perfect peace. A state of "sublimation of existence above all qualities," is the only thing that is real and substantial. Budha has attained to that state which is called in the Pali Nirwana, but by the Siamese Nipán. The literal meaning of the word is, "absence of all desire," which involves an absence of thought, and may hence be called a state of dreamless perpetual sleep. To attain to that state the Budhist dogma, that all things which appear in creation are illusive, and unreal, and consequently unsubstantial, must be firmly fixed upon the mind. This lesson, however, can only be learned by the most studious application of the mind, and moral discipline by self-denial during a period of at least 100,000 transmigrations. To our mind Nipán is nothing but annihilation, but Budhists will not admit it to be such, but maintain that Budha has a perpetual existence there, Nipán is the Budhist's highest idea of happiness. Omnipotence may be attained by perfect virtue, abstinence, thought, and meditation.

Fatality is the cause of creation. The universe came into existence by the inherent force of fixed and invariable laws, which brings the worlds out of chaos, and conducts them on by gradation to a state of high perfection, and then downward again by the same gradation to dissolution, and then back again, upward and downward in a series that had no beginning, and will have no end. If any Siamese in the kingdom be asked who made the world, he will invariably answer "pen eng," it made itself.

The teachings of Budha appear to have been transmitted by tradition for about four hundred and fifty years after his death, and were then committed to writing by the authority of a Budhist Council.

The Budhist system of the universe is found in a book called the Trei Poom, or a book settling all questions about the existence of the three worlds. The Trei Poom of the Siamese was originally translated from the Pali. The work was doubtless originally written in Ceylon, and carried thence to all Budhist countries. The Rev. Dr. Bradley, the oldest missionary in Siam, has prepared an abstract from the Trei Poom, and published in the Bangkok Calendar, from which I shall make a few extracts on the present occasion.

The universe consists of an infinite number of systems, called by the Siamese Chackrawan. Each Chackrawan has a sun, moon and stars revolving around the top of a central mountain, called Kow Pra Men, which extends above the surface of the ocean about 840,000 miles, and the same distance into the ocean. It forms a perfect circle, having a circumference equal to 2,520,000 miles. Parallel to the circle it describes, and at a distance of 420,000 miles, is the first of seven circular mountains, being variously distant from each other. Their depth in water is the same as their height above it. The names, height, circumference, &c., of these mountains are all given, but would occupy too much space to enumerate here. Between each of the seven mountains is a sea called Seetawtara Samoot. The width and depth of each is as the distance between the mountains which bound it, and the depth of the mountains below the surface of the water. The water is exceedingly refined and light. The fish that live in those seas are wonderful for variety and size, being many thousand miles long. Parallel with the circle described by the seventh mountain, and 5,513,650 miles from it, is a circular glass mountain, called Kow Chakrawan. This mountain forms the horizontal boundary of the system. Its height is 820,000 miles, and its thickness 120,000. The circular area which this mountain encloses is 12,034,500 miles in diameter. The circumference of the mountains on the outside is 136,035,500 miles. The water on both sides is 820,000 miles deep. The width of the ocean between it and Kow Asa Kan is 3,513,650 miles. Within this vast expanse of water are situated the four grand divisions of the populated plane or surface of the Chakrawan. These are called Taweeps, which, for want of a better term to express them, have been translated continents. These all have their appropriate names. The first, in its horizontal contour, is shaped somewhat like the face of a man, and hence is inhabited by mankind with faces like itself. The second has a form like a half-moon, and is inhabited by an intelligent race with semi-circular faces. The third is a perfect square, and is inhabited by square-faced beings. The fourth is circular, and is inhabited by beings having faces like the full moon. The distance from each Taweep to Kow Chakrawan is 2,798,600 miles. Each Chakrawan system is underlaid by a body of water independent of their oceans. The distance from the surface of the earth to it is 260,000 miles, and the depth of it is 480,000 miles. Underlying this body there is a stratum of air 960,000 miles in depth, and thence downward there is nothing but an open and utter void.

Each Chackrawan has attached to it, somewhere in the subterranean regions, eight chief hells, called by the Siamese Narok, meaning worlds of utter misery. Each of these hells has attached to it sixteen smaller ones, making one hundred and twenty-eight in all. Outside of these there is another range of purgatories, forty to each chief hell, making in all three hundred and seventy.

Each Chakrawan has attached to it six inferior heavenly worlds, called Tewalok, situated above each other, and at immense distances apart. The first is situated on the top of the first of the seven circular mountains, and the second on the top of Kow Pra Men. The others have no terrestrial foundation, but are suspended in open space.

These Chakrawans are far more innumerable than the particles of matter which compose the earth. A mighty Prom once desired to find the limits of these systems. He was so powerful that by one step he could cross a Chakrawan as swiftly as an arrow crosses the shadow of a palmyra tree at midday. He travelled from one Chakrawan to another at that rate for one thousand years, and then onward ten thousand more, and then one hundred thousand more, until he was convinced that it was impossible to find the limit, or to express their immensity in numbers.

The Budhist decalogue consists of ten commandments, viz.

I. From the meanest insect up to man, thou shalt kill no animal whatever.

II. Thou shalt not steal.

III. Thou shalt not violate the wife of another, nor his concubine.

IV. Thou shalt speak no word that is false.

V. Thou shalt not drink wine, nor anything that may intoxicate.

VI. Thou shalt avoid all anger, hatred, and bitter language.

VII. Thou shalt not indulge in idle and vain talk.

VIII. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.

IX. Thou shalt not harbor envy, nor pride, nor malice, nor revenge, nor the desire of thy neighbor's death or misfortune.

X. Thou shalt not follow the doctrines of false gods.

All who are habitually engaged in killing animals, stealing, committing adultery, drinking ardent spirits and getting drunk, will sink to the lowest hell. There are, however, five crimes which are especially damnable, viz., murder of father or mother, murder of the highest order of priests,