ed 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; more and more clear the truth that Christianity, as a great
fact in man's history, is not dependent for its life upon any parasitic
growths of myth and legend, no matter how beautiful they may be.(498)

(498) For Huc and Gabet, see Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie, le
Thibet, et la Chine, English translation by Hazlitt, London, 1851; also
supplementary work by Huc. For Bishop Bigandet, see his Life of Buddha,
passim. As for 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, rituals, etc., see Rhys David'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 the
Promotion of 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 XXVIII and following. For full
details of the canonization of Buddha under the name of St. Josaphat,
see Fausboll, 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 the
ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. For the more recent
and full accounts, correcting some minor details in the foregoing
authorities, see Kuhn, Barlaam und Joasaph, Munich, 1893, especially
pages 82, 83. For a very thorough discussion of the whole subject,
see Zotenberg, Notice sur le livre de Barlaam et Joasaph, Paris, 1886;
especially for arguments fixing date of the work, see parts i to
iii; also Gaston Paris in the Revue de Paris fo