Let any one compare the prediction of the so-called Indian Simeon, the Nalaka Sutta, in vol. x. p. 125 of _Sacred Books of the East_, with Luke ii. 25; the account of the Temptation by Mara, in the _Romantic Legend_, pp. 204, 224, or in Hardy’s _Manual of Buddhism_, p. 183, with Matt. iv. 1; the so-called Transfiguration in Mahâparinibhâna, iv. 49, vol. xi. _Sacred Books of the East_, p. 81, with Matt. xvii. 1-8; the feast of the courtesan Ambopali, in Mahâparinibhâna Sutta, ii. 16. 25, _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xi. p. 30, with Christ’s treatment of the Magdalene in Luke vii. 36, and he will see at once how improbable and even absurd is the theory that the Evangelists borrowed from the Buddhist compilers. That we are dealing with quite an inferior order of facts is apparent when we compare one of the most touching coincidences, Buddha’s last discourse to the Beloved Ananda in Mahâparinibhâna Sutta, v. 34. 35, “Let not yourself be troubled,” with John xiv. 1-6. In some of the miracles accompanying the birth and temptations of Buddha, there are not only gross absurdities but positive indecencies, which by the simplicity and modesty and reticence of the Gospel narratives are powerfully condemned. See _Lalita Vistara_, chaps. vi. and vii., and _Buddhist Birth-Stories_, vol. i. pp. 58, 68. Footnote 159: This is a very great assumption indeed. Foucaux, its translator, assigns it to the first century B.C., but T. W. Rhys Davids assigns it to some Nepaulese poet “who lived between six hundred and a thousand years after Buddha’s death” (Hibbert Lectures, pp. 197, 204). A Chinese version is said to have been in existence about 70 A.D. Rajendralal Mitra, its English translator, admits this in his Introduction, p. 48, but whether that was a version, or another book altogether, or how far it corresponded with the _Lalita Vistara_, no scholar has been confident to say. Dr. Beal also mentions a life of Buddha by Asvaghosha as probably in circulation about the middle of the Christian era (_Chinese Buddhism_, p. 73). Footnote 160: Mahâparinibhâna Sutta, translated by T. W. Rhys Davids, _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xi. Footnote 161: