at time, however,
M. Julien kept the key of his discoveries to himself. He gave us the
results of his labours without giving us more than a general idea of
the process by which those results had been obtained. He has now
published his 'Methode pour dechiffrer et transcrire les noms
sanscrits qui se rencontrent dans les livres chinois,' and he has
given to the public his Chinese-Sanskrit dictionary, the work of
sixteen years of arduous labour, containing all the Chinese characters
which are used for representing phonetically the technical terms and
proper names of the Buddhist literature of India.

[Footnote 91: 'Methode pour dechiffrer et transcrire les noms
sanscrits qui se rencontrent dans les livres chinois.' Par M.
Stanislas Julien, Membre de l'Institut. Paris, 1861.]

In order fully to appreciate the labours and discoveries of M. Julien
in this remote field of Oriental literature, we must bear in mind that
the doctrine of Buddha arose in India about two centuries before
Alexander's invasion. It became the state religion of India soon after
Alexander's conquest, and it produced a vast literature, which was
collected into a canon at a council held about 246 B.C. Very soon
after that council, Buddhism assumed a proselytizing character. It
spread in the south to Ceylon, in the north to Kashmir, the Himalayan
countries, Tibet, and China. In the historical annals of China, on
which, in the absence of anything like historical literature in
Sanskrit, we must mainly depend for information on the spreading of
Buddhism, one Buddhist missionary is mentioned as early as 217 B.C.;
and about the year 120 B.C. a Chinese general, after defeating the
barbarous tribes north of the desert of Gobi, brought back as a trophy
a golden statue--the statue of Buddha. It was not, however, till the
year 65 A.D. that Buddhism was officially recognised by the Chinese
Emperor as a third state religion. Ever since, it has shared equal
honours with the doctrines of Confucius and Lao-tse in the Celestial
Empire; and it is but lately that these three established religions
have had to fear the encroachments of a new rival in the creed of the
Chief of the rebels.

Once established in China, and well provided with monasteries and
benefices, the Buddhist priesthood seems to have been most active in
its literary labours. Immense as was the Buddhist literature of India,
the Chinese swelled it to still more appalling proportions. The first
thing to be d