He then asked if the man was born so, and the charioteer answered
that he was not, as he was once young like themselves. 'Are there,' said
the prince, 'many such beings in the world?' 'Your highness,' said the
charioteer, 'there are many.' The prince again enquired, 'Shall I become
thus old and decrepit?' and he was told that it was a state at which all
beings must arrive."
The prince returns home and informs his father of his intention to become
an ascetic, seeing how undesirable is life tending to such decay. His
father conjures him to put away such thoughts, and to enjoy himself with
his princesses, and he strengthens the guards about the palaces. Four
months later like circumstances recur, and the prince sees a leper, and
after the same interval a dead body in corruption. Lastly, he sees a
religious recluse, radiant with peace and tranquillity, and resolves to
delay no longer. He leaves his palace at night, after a look at his wife
Yasodhara and the boy just born to him, and betakes himself to the forests
of Magadha, where he passes seven years in extreme asceticism. At the end
of that time he attains the Buddhahood. (See Hardy's Manual p. 151
seqq.) The latter part of the story told by Marco, about the body of the
prince being brought to his father, etc., is erroneous. Sakya was 80 years
of age when he died under the sal trees in Kusinara.
The strange parallel between Buddhistic ritual, discipline, and costume,
and those which especially claim the name of CATHOLIC in the Christian
Church, has been often noticed; and though the parallel has never been
elaborated as it might be, some of the more salient facts are familiar to
most readers. Still many may be unaware that Buddha himself, Siddharta the
son of Suddodhana, has found his way into the Roman martyrology as a Saint
of the Church.
In the first edition a mere allusion was made to this singular story, for
it had recently been treated by Professor Max Mueller, with characteristic
learning and grace. (See Contemporary Review for July, 1870, p. 588.)
But the matter is so curious and still so little familiar that I now
venture to give it at some length.
The religious romance called the History of BARLAAM and JOSAPHAT was for
several centuries one of the most popular works in Christendom. It was
translated into all the chief European languages, including Scandinavian
and Sclavonic tongues. An Icelandic version dates from the year 1204; one
in the Tagal language of the Philippines was printed at Manilla in 1712.[2]
The episodes and apologues with which the story abounds have furnished
materials to poets and story-tellers in various ages and of very diverse
characters; e.g. to Giovanni Boccaccio, John Gower, and to the compiler of
the Gesta Romanorum, to Shakspere, and to the late W. Adams, author of
the Kings Messengers.
