When we contemplate the confusion that existed in the Christian church--the gradual deterioration of the faith taught by Jesus, and more especially by Paul, and the steady absorption of Pagan rites into the worship inaugurated by Peter and the other apostles, we can readily understand that in the course of six or seven hundred years there would be reason in countries distant from the home of Siddartha to deplore the gradual decadence of Buddhism, and a desire amongst the devout for tuition at the fountain-head. In modern times we have read of hierarchs coming from the uttermost parts of the earth to consult the Roman Pontiff upon points of discipline affecting the church, and we therefore see without surprise that, about A.D. 400, six hundred years after it had been planted, the congregation of Buddhists in China had within it men who determined to go to India, and bring back to their fellow-worshippers what they hoped would be a purer doctrine than that which they were accustomed to, and, if possible, to secure authentic books. Pilgrimage, with this object, cannot be regarded as being so absurd as that which has in modern days taken numbers of Christians to Lourdes, in the Pyrenees, or to St. Paray-le-Monial. Ere we describe this Chinese search after truth, let us imagine a Christian from Central Russia determining to seek for enlightenment at Antioch about a.d. 640, and subsequently at the seven churches named in the Apocalypse--and afterwards writing his experience. We should be certain to find him bewailing the fall of Christianity and the rise of Islam. We may indeed affirm that if such a history was now to be discovered undated, we should regard it as having been written before or after the date named, according as "the churches" were described as being the seat of Mahommedism or of Christianity. Still further, if in every place which this traveller visited, he found a general belief in the stories told of Jesus and in the efficacy of his doctrine, we should consider this as proof that the people remained faithful to their early teaching. If, on the other hand, the wanderer found himself proscribed in any locality as a benighted heathen, without knowledge of the way of salvation--he would naturally think that a teacher had given to its inhabitants instruction different from that which was familiar to him. I do not exaggerate when I say that a genuine account of the travels in search of sound Christian doctrine through every part of Europe in the fifth century of our era, would be invaluable as an indication of the tenure of certain doctrines, not only in various localities, but as to the existence or the reverse of dogmas now regarded as of supreme importance.