180 REV. RICHARD COLLINS, M.A. 
Professor Douglas writes :— 
* King’s College, March 21. 
“DEAR Sir, : 
“Tiving out of London as I do, besides having my hands very full 
of work, I find it difficult to attend evening meetings; and as the 
subject for discussion this evening is not one to which I have paid more 
than passing attention, I fear that ‘T should not be able to throw much light 
upon it. But this much I may say, that nothing is so deluding as Oriental 
chronology, and before it would be possible to assert that the myths relatiny 
to the births of Krishna and Buddha were current prior to our era, it will 
be necessary to go far more critically into earlier chronology than as yet we 
have been able to do. Confucius may be added to the list of those sages 
who are said to have been born in caves, and whose births were announced 
by heavenly portents. But so far as he is concerned, I have no hesitation 
in assigning the origin of the myth to a date after Christ. 
“ Faithfully yours, 
“ Ropert K. Dovaeuas.” 
Professor Terrien de Lacouperie, Ph.D. Litt.D., writes :— 
© 62, Chesilton-road, Fulham, §8.W., London, 
“ March 21, 
“Dear Captain Perrir, 
“T lecture this afternoon at the Royal Asiatic Society, and I am afraid 
for this reason I shall not be able to be present at your interesting Meeting 
to-night. 
“The Rev. Richard Collins’ paper on Krishna and Solar Myths is a 
healthy contribution to unbiassed knowledge, with which I am glad to 
agree in its main lines. 
“‘T have not the books at hand, but I think that the combination Jezeus 
Kaishna was put forth by M. Louis Jacolliot, formerly a French magistrate 
in India, who wrote unsuccessfully several volumes in view of showing that 
Christianity was a clever adaptation of Hindu views, ideas, and Looks. 
“ Yours truly, 
“T pE LACOUPERIE.” 
Rev. H. M. M. Hackert. By would have felt some trepidation in rising to 
speak on this paper, but for the letter which has just been read from Pro- 
fessor Max Miiller, because, after carefully reading what Mr. Collins has 
written, I came to conclusions very different indeed from those at which he 
has arrived—conclusions which I did not then adopt for the first time, 
but which had been the result of many years’ work in India. In the first 
place, I am quite ready to believe in the possibility of Christian notions 
having filtered from various sources into Hindoo religions in ages that have 
passed since the coming cf Christ, because I have myself seen some strange 
instances of this in remote villages, where stories of Christ had been re- 
peated and believed as having reference to persons who are supposed to 
have lived in the neighbourhood—stories that have evidently been derived 
from Scripture. The theory which the author has put forward is an old 
