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Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/546

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

acter of the final theses, but also upon the general standard of scholarship in the university, because the whole body of students becomes more industrious; and following this naturally the standard of the lecturers must be correspondingly raised. It is claimed that the requirements in examinations are rather higher in Swiss universities than in those where women are not admitted to equal privileges. The students themselves grant that the influence is good by their cheerful acceptance of the conditions and their business-like adjustment of each other's rights—men and women together as men and men together, according to rules of refined courtesy. A tutor from the University of Vienna visited Zurich during the past winter for the purpose of observation, because an appeal had come from women in Vienna for admission to study. He was much impressed by the air of order and business which the class-rooms everywhere presented. The live interest which pervaded everything and absorbed all thought of self or sex in delight of new power to see and do, was incomprehensible to him. Such earnest preparation and such sensible recognition of favorable conditions and devotion to a chosen work must make women who will be powerful afterward in the general work of elevating humanity; and when all the world's universities thus join hands in developing all the forces God has placed latent in men and women, the full light will sooner shine into corners which are as yet mysterious and only tempting to man's curiosity or tantalizing to his needs.

CHINESE BUDDHISM.

By WARREN G. BENTON.

IN a former paper, on the Taouist Religion, it was the purpose of the writer not to dwell upon the strictly historical features of the subject. That has been done by others, whose conclusions are recorded in books and encyclopædias which may be consulted. But the object aimed at was to give as true a picture as possible, in small space, of the practical workings of the system at the present time.

In writing of Chinese Buddhism the purpose is not to enter the historical phases of the question, but to show the present status of this ancient faith in the land of its adoption.

Historians generally agree that the religion was invented in Hindostan, about six centuries b. c., and that it has spread throughout almost all of Asia, until it is to day the religion of at least a third of the human race. To have lived so long, and reached so wide a field in its conquests, indicate elements of vitality not frequently matched in the world's history; and, while its