and a multitude of other statements were full of suggestions to larger thought regarding the development of sacred literature in general. Even the eminent Roman Catholic missionary, Bishop Bigandet, was obliged to confess in his scholarly life of Buddha these striking similarities between the Buddhist scriptures and those which it was his mission to expound, though by this honest statement his own further promotion was rendered impossible. Fausboll also found the story of the judgment of Solomon imbedded in Buddhist folklore; and Sir Edwin Arnold, by his poem, The Light of Asia, spread far and wide a knowledge of the anticipation in Buddhism of some ideas which, down to a recent period, were considered distinctively Christian. Imperfect as the revelations thus made of an evolution of religious beliefs, institutions, and literature still are, they have not been without an important bearing upon the newer conception of our own sacred books: more and more manifest has become the interdependence of all human development;[1] more and more clear the truth that Chris-
- ↑ For Hue and Gabet, see Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet, la Chine, English translation by Hazlitt, London, 1851; also supplementary work by Huc. For Bishop Bigandet, see his Life of Buddha, passim. As authority for the fact that his book was condemned at Rome and his own promotion prevented, the present writer has the bishop's own statement. For notices of similarities between Buddhist and Christian institutions, ritual, etc., see Rhys Davids's Buddhism, London, 1894, passim; also Lillie, Buddhism and Christianity—especially chaps, ii and xi. It is somewhat difficult to understand how a scholar so eminent as Mr. Rhys Davids should have allowed the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which published his book, to eliminate all the interesting details regarding the birth of Buddha, and to give so fully everything that seemed to tell against the Roman Catholic Church; cf. p. 27 with p. 246 et seq. For more thorough presentation of the development of features in Buddhism and Brahmanism which anticipate those of Christianity, see Schroeder, Indiens Literatur und Cultur, Leipsic, 1887, especially Vorlesung xxvii and following. For full details of the canonization of Buddha under the name of St. Josaphat, see Fausböll, Buddhist Birth Stories, translated by Rhys Davids, London, 1880, pp. xxxvi and following; also Prof. Max Muller in the Contemporary Review for July, 1890; also the article Barlaam and Josaphat, in ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. For the more recent and full accounts, correcting some minor details in the foregoing authorities, see Kuhn, Barlaam und Joasaph, Munich, 1893, especially pp. 82, 83; also Zotenberg, cited by Gaston Paris in the Revue de Paris for June, 1895. For the transliteration between the appellation of Buddha and the name of the saint, see Fausböll and Sayce as above, p. xxxvii, note; and for the multitude of translations of the work ascribed to St. John of Damascus, see Table III on p. xcv. The reader who is curious to trace up a multitude of the myths and legends of early Hebrew and Christian mythology to their more eastern and southern sources can do so in Bible Myths, New York, 1883. The present writer gladly avails himself of the opportunity to thank the learned Director of the National Library at Palermo, Monsignor Marzo, for his kindness in showing him the very interesting church of San Giosafat in that city; and to the custodians of the church for their readiness to allow photographs of the saint to be taken. The writer's visit was made in April, 1895, and copies of the photographs may be seen in the library of Cornell University. As to the more rare editions of Barlaam and Josaphat, a copy of the Icelandic translation is to be seen in the remarkable collection of Prof. Willard Fiske, at Florence.
