endless
sects, nay, founded on two distinct codes of canonical writings." Two
Buddhist priests who were reading Sanskrit with him would hardly
recognize the Buddhism now practiced in Ceylon as their own religion.

He also acknowledged the startling coincidences between Buddhism and
Christianity, and that Buddhism existed at least 400 years before
Christianity. He would go farther, and feel extremely grateful if
anybody would point out to him the historical channels through which
Buddhism had influenced early Christianity. "I have been looking for
such channels all my life," says he, "but hitherto I have found none.
What I have found is that for some of the most startling coincidences
there are historical antecedents on both sides; and if we knew these
antecedents, the coincidences become far less startling. If I do find
in certain Buddhist works doctrines identically the same as in
Christianity, so far from being frightened, I feel delighted, for
surely truth is not the less true because it is believed by the
majority of the human race.

"I believe we have made some progress during the last thirty years. I
still remember the time when all heathen religions were looked upon as
the work of the devil.(A1) We know now that they are stages in a
growth, and in a growth not determined by an accidental environment
only, but by an original purpose, a purpose to be realized in the
history of the human race as a whole. Even missionaries have begun to
approach the heathen in a new and better spirit. They look for what
may safely be preserved in the religion of their pupils, and on that
common ground they try to erect a purer faith and a better worship,
instead of attempting to destroy the sacred foundations of religion,
which, I believe, exist, or at least, existed, in every human heart."

He also states that the publishing of the "Rig-Veda and Commentary,"
his life-work, had produced a complete revolution both in our views of
ancient religions and in the religious life of the Hindus themselves;
and this not so much on the surface as in its deepest foundations.--A.
W.

A1: We have no knowledge of such a belief. The common Christian theory
is that Christianity is as old as the garden of Eden, and that truth
in other religions is the result of contact, somewhere, at some time,
with Christianity.--AM. PUBS.]

[Footnote 105: Published by Fleet in the "Indian Antiquary," 1876, pp.
68-73, and first mentioned by Dr. Bhao Daji, Jour