Celsus, quoting our Lord’s saying, Matt. xix. 24, and the exhortation to forgive our enemies, Matt. v. 43, 45, alleged they were transferred and coarsely perverted from Plato, _de Legibus_, and _Crito_.—Origen, _contra Celsum_, Book vi. chaps. 15, 16, and Book vii. chap. 61. Footnote 60: _Enarr. in Psalm._ cxl. 6. Clement of Alexandria regarded Greek philosophy as a προπαιδεία or preparatory discipline for the reception of Christian truth, _Strom._ vi. chap. 8, and as a step to something higher, ὑποβάθραν οὖσαν τῆς κατὰ Χριστὸν φιλοσοφίας, _Strom._ vi. chap. 17. Footnote 61: Trench, Hulsean Lectures for 1846, p. 153. LECTURE II. THE HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY, AND THE EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SCRIPTURES. It should be an advantage to the study of Buddhism that even in its origin it confronts us as the religion of a people sufficiently advanced in civilisation to be able to formulate their metaphysical conceptions and present us with their religious beliefs organised in a system. Like Christianity it not only inherited but also produced a considerable and very miscellaneous literature, whose contents throw valuable light upon the past from which it emerged and upon the course which it followed, and like Christianity it has left its stamp on most of the institutions of the peoples among whom it was successfully propagated. When all these sources of information have been properly investigated, we may hope that the story of the rise and progress of Buddhism in the East will be revealed with something at least of the clearness with which the history of Christianity is disclosed by the literature and art of the West. To trace, however, the dawn and spread of Buddhism with anything like historical accuracy for the first six or seven hundred years of its course, is a task as yet beyond the literary ability of the times. It is doubtful whether the materials for such a work have as yet been collected, and he would be a bold man who would claim for the task of sifting what has already been furnished more than an earnest beginning. Not even Saint-Hilaire would now repeat the assertion so confidently made thirty years ago,[62] that “no new discoveries can change our conclusions regarding it”; for during the past generation the effect of fuller information has been not only to modify, but in several instances to revolutionise the theories formed concerning it. Discoveries are multiplying every year; and, though the knowledge thus acquired serves often more to reveal difficulties than to solve them, we may be thankful that the examination of them is engaging the attention of the highest order of scholarship, and hopeful, yea, even confident that since so many of the ablest and most patient minds are turned in this direction, the aggregate of progress will speedily be immense.