_ Buddha, the mythical
Cyrus, and the mythical Alexander, _never lived in the flesh_. The
_Sun-myth_ has been added to the histories of these personages, in a
greater or less degree, just as it has been added to the history of many
other real personages. If it be urged that the attribution to Christ
Jesus of qualities or powers belonging to the Pagan deities would hardly
seem reasonable, the answer must be that nothing is done in his case
which has not been done in the case of almost every other member of the
great company of the gods. The tendency of myths to _reproduce
themselves_, with differences only of _names_ and _local coloring_,
becomes especially manifest after perusing the legendary histories of
the gods of antiquity. It is a fact demonstrated by history, that when
one nation of antiquity came in contact with another, _they adopted each
other's myths without hesitation_. After the Jews had been taken
captives to Babylon, around the history of _their King Solomon_
accumulated the fables which were related of _Persian heroes_. When the
fame of Cyrus and Alexander became known over the then known world, the
popular _Sun-myth_ was interwoven with their true history. The mythical
history of Perseus is, in all its essential features, the history of the
Attic hero Theseus, and of the Theban OEdipus, and they all reappear
with heightened colors in the myths of Hercules. We have the same thing
again in the mythical and religious history of Crishna; it is, in nearly
all its essential features, the history of Buddha, and reappears again,
with heightened colors, in the history of _Christ_ Jesus. The myths of
Buddha and Jesus differ from the legends of the other virgin-born
Saviours only in the fact that in their cases it has gathered round
unquestionably historical personages. In other words, an old myth has
been added to names undoubtedly historical. But it cannot be too often
repeated that from the _myth_ we learn nothing of their history. How
much we really know of the man Jesus will be considered in our next, and
last, chapter.[507:1] That his biography, as recorded in the books of
the New Testament, contains some few grains of actual history, is all
that the historian or philosopher can rationally venture to urge. But
the very process which has stripped these legends of all value as a
chronicle of actual events has invested them with a new interest. Less
than ever are they worthless fictions which the historian or phi