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" Again, in the first chapter and third page of the French, the king of the Kinnaras, called Druma, is in ihe Chinese called Dharina ; — and such differences occur on almost every page. ' TraveL^ of PjvrhUiist Pihjrims, p. 201. SCRIPTURES FROM THE CHINESE. were shown the picture of the sufferings of the Prince. This little incident may very reasonably account for the conver- sion of the whole tribe of invaders^ who, under the rule of Kanishka and his successors, became the most devoted patrons of the Buddhist faith, and the magnificent founders of Topes and temples, the ruins of which have come down even to our own times. And from this reference of Song Yun to the Vessantara Jataka, represented in the White Elephant Temple near Varousha, we are led to connect the Sang-teh or Santi Temples in the neighbourhood of that city, with the Sanchi or Santi Topes near Bhilsa, where also, over the northern gateway of the great Tope, we find sculptured the same history of Bodhisatva as Vessantara, giving away his whole possessions, his children and his wife, so that there might be no remnant of selfishness left in his nature, and thus he might be fitted to undertake the salva- tion of men. But it is scarcely necessary, in recollection of the labours of M. Julien, and the school of French Sino- logues amongst whom he is conspicuous, to bring fui'ther instances of the manner in which we may derive funds of information from China respecting the civilisation of India. 8. Nor must we overlook the connection between the history of Buddhism in the East and the progress of Chris- tian civilisation in the West. In the middle ages there was a favourite legend known throughout Europe, and generally accepted as genuine, under the name of Barlaam and Josaphat. This history is at present widely circulated in the modern edition of The Lives of the Saints by Symeon, the Translator (Metaphrastes).^ But on examination we find that the life of Josaphat, who has somehow crept into the Roman martyrology, was but a copy of the well known history of Sakya Buddha, and was appropriated doubtlessly by the early Christian hagiographers, as being in itself a very touching and natui-al account of the struggle of a sensitive conscience with the temptations of a wicked and ensnaring > The edition printed at Venice 1855, and called the Paradise, is that to which I refer. 6 A CATENA OF BUDDHIST world. ^ There are other instances of a mutual relationship and influence exerted on either side, by the intercommunica- tion of ideas, between East and West. The effect of Roman enterprise on the civilisation of India has not yet been rightly estimated. Respecting this Mr. Fergusson has said — " My impression is that few who are familiar with the arts of Rome in Constantino's time, and who will take the trouble to master the Amravati sculptures, can fail to per- ceive many points of affinity between them. The circular medallions of the arch of Constantino — such as belong to his time — and the general tone of the art of his age so closely resemble what we find here, that the coincidence can hardly be accidental. The conviction that the study of these sculptures (of Amravati) has forced on my mind, is, that there was much more intercommunication between the East and West during the whole period from Alexander (the Great) to Justinian, than is generally supposed, and that the intercourse was especially frequent and influential in the middle period between Augustus and Constantino."" But if India received from Rome some part of her material civilisation, she gave back to Rome advanced ideas in the great pi-oblems that had vexed her religious life for centuries. The candid examination of this subject must yet engage the attention of learned men. Few will be found, however, to deny the fact that such an influence was exerted. The ideas found in the Inferno of Dante are many of them purely Buddhist. The conceit of the early painters who surrounded their saints with a glory of light is borrowed from the East. Who that reads the pilgrimage of Fah-hien but must observe the particular care the writer takes in speaking of the orthodox rule of facing the East during religious exer- cises. The story of the Patra of Buddha found in the same pil- 1 For an account of this story see Jahrhuch fiir Romanische und Englische Literatur, April 1860 ; and also Professor Miiller's lecture on the "Migration of Fables," printed in the Qontemporari/ Review, July 1870. ^ Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 161-2. SCRIPTURES FROM THE CHINESE. / grimage is more than a probable origin of tlie myth of the Holy Grail, The monastic rules of the Buddhists^ found in the Pratimoksha (a work dating from b.c.)^ are in their general tone, and even in some particulars, wonderfully like those adopted in the West.^ The adoration of relics, which crept into the Christian church at an eai-ly period, is certainly not of Jewish origin; whilst in minuter details, touching vestments, bells, candles, and incense, the priority of their use among the Buddhists can hardly be disputed. Whether the similarity of these and other ceremonial observances between the two religions, be the direct consequence of intercourse resulting in imitation, or the power of Satan exercised for the pur- pose of deceiving the world and dishonouring truth, must be for the candid consideration of all earnest inquirers. This much, however, must be said, that the morahty of Buddhism forbids us to associate that part of the system with any such influence. It has been said of the founder of this faith — " Si fuisset Christianus, fuisset apud Deum maximus factus";^ and in every direction we find similar ob- servations being extorted even from unwilling lips, in consi- deration of the simplicity and the purity of the moral precepts and practical rules of this religion. And if only the use of cere- monial observances, common to both East and West, is to re- legate the religious system of the former to the evil power of Satan, it is not so evident why he should be excluded from the latter, in these same particulars. 9. But the widest and most interesting result to be de- rived from such studies as these, is the means they afford us for arriving at a correct judgment in the comparative science of rebgion. There is a Divine strategy employed in the education of the world, and its method may be traced in the less apparent affinities of religious systems, which, though generally unobserved, are tending to lead men to- wards the same central truth. We may sometimes venture to interpret the Divine method. And if in any case we ' Vide Spence Hardy's Eastern Monachism. ^ Marco Polo. 8 A CATENA OF BUDDHIST' may do so, certainly we may in the present subject of in- quiry. Tlie millions who inhabit China and India had been prepared through a long lapse of ages, by their respective religious systems, for the reception of higher truth. The morality of Confucius had preserved China from sinking into gross sensualism or degrading idolatry — the vigorous growth of the Buddhist system in India had preserved that country from the inevitable cod sequences of priestly tyranny. At the time of the Christian sera, the populations of these empires were prepared for an advance in the religious movement of the world. How interesting the field opened out to the eye both in East and West at this period — 'Hhe old order changing, yielding place to new" — St. Paul preaching at Rome, and perhaps in Spain and Britain, whilst Kanishka and his fierce tribes of Scyths were preparing a way of safety for the missionary to traverse through the mountain wilds of the East — and at the same time the whole popu- lation of China awaiting the return of an embassy sent to India to find out the doctrine of the Western Sage, of whom some imperfect report had already reached them. These events happening on such a world-wide scale, in- dicate the culmination of a Divine plan — the arrival of the full time for which men had been looking, and in preparation for which the religious systems of the peoples had been secretly working.