clusion must be
that it owes no direct debt to Indian, Egyptian, Persian or other
oriental sources. But inasmuch as he was in sympathy with the more
spiritual elements of Judaism, largely borrowed during the Babylonian
captivity, and with the unworldly and self-denying lives of the
Essenes, the tone of his teaching is nearer to these newer and
imported doctrines than to the old law of Israel.[1117]

Some striking parallels have been pointed out between the Gospels and
Indian texts of such undoubted antiquity that if imitation is
admitted, the Evangelists must have been the imitators. Before
considering these instances I invite the reader's attention to two
parallel passages from Shakespeare and the Indian poet Bhartrihari.
The latter is thus translated by Monier Williams:[1118]

Now for a little while a child, and now
An amorous youth; then for a season turned
Into the wealthy householder: then stripped
Of all his riches, with decrepit limbs
And wrinkled frame man creeps towards the end
Of life's erratic course and like an actor
Passes behind Death's curtain out of view.

The resemblance of this to the well-known lines in _As You Like It_,
"All the world's a stage," etc., is obvious, and it is a real
resemblance, although the point emphasized by Bhartrihari is that man
leaves the world like an actor who at the end of the piece slips
behind the curtain, which formed the background of an Indian stage.
But, great as is the resemblance, I imagine that no one would maintain
that it has any other origin than that a fairly obvious thought
occurred to two writers in different times and countries and
suggested similar expressions.

Now many parallels between the Buddhist and Christian scriptures--the
majority as it seems to me of those collected by Edmunds and
Anesaki--belong to this class.[1119] One of the most striking is the
passage in the Vinaya relating how the Buddha himself cared for a
sick monk who was neglected by his colleagues and said to these
latter, "Whosoever would wait upon me let him wait on the sick."[1120]
Here the resemblance to Matthew xxv. 40 and 45 is remarkable, but I do
not imagine that the writer of the Gospel had ever heard or read of
the Buddha's words. The sentiment which prompted them, if none too
common, is at least widespread and is the same that made Confucius
show respect and courtesy to the blind. The setting of the saying in
the Vinaya and in the Gospel is qu