re
desire of discovering truth, without any ulterior objects, they deserve no
blame, though, for a time, they may lead to erroneous results. But when
coincidences between different religions and mythologies are searched out
simply in support of preconceived theories, whether by the friends or
enemies of religion, the sense of truth, the very life of all science, is
sacrificed, and serious mischief will follow without fail. Here we have a
right, not only to protest, but to blame. There is on this account a great
difference between the books we have hitherto examined, and a work lately
published in Paris by M. Jacolliot, under the sensational title of "La
Bible dans l'Inde, Vie de Jeseus Christna." If this book had been written
with the pure enthusiasm of Lieutenant Wilford, it might have been passed
by as a mere anachronism. But when one sees how its author shuts his eyes
against all evidence that would tell against him, and brings together,
without any critical scruples, whatever seems to support his theory that
Christianity is a mere copy of the ancient religion of India, mere silence
would not be a sufficient answer. Besides, the book has lately been
translated into English, and will be read, no doubt, by many people who
cannot test the evidence on which it professes to be founded. We learn
that M. Jacolliot was some years ago appointed President of the Court of
Justice at Chandernagore, and that he devoted the leisure left him from
the duties of his position to studying Sanskrit and the holy books of the
Hindus. He is said to have put himself in communication with the Brahmans,
who had obtained access to a great number of MSS. carefully stored up in
the depths of the pagodas. "The purport of his book is" (I quote from a
friendly critic), "that our civilization, our religion, our legends, our
gods, have come to us from India, after passing in succession through
Egypt, Persia, Judea, Greece, and Italy." This statement, we are told, is
not confined to M. Jacolliot, but has been admitted by almost all Oriental
scholars. The Old and New Testaments are found again in the Vedas, and the
texts quoted by M. Jacolliot in support of his theory are said to leave it
without doubt. Brahma created Adima (in Sanskrit, the first man) and gave
him for companion Heva (in Sanskrit, that which completes life). He
appointed the island of Ceylon for their residence. What follows
afterwards is so beautifully described that I may be pardoned fo