PREFACE. 



rilHE Eigliteentli Volume of the Journal of the Trans- 

 -■- actions of the Victoria Institute is now issued. 

 It contains papers by the following authors : — The Eev. 

 RiCHAED Collins, M.A., on '' Buddhism in relation to 

 Christianity/' giving the results of the deepest and most 

 careful researches as yet made into the history of the times 

 when Buddhism took its rise : the author comes to the con- 

 clusion that not only are there no grounds for the theory 

 advanced by some home and foreign writers — that Christianity 

 was, to some extent, a development of Buddhism, — but that 

 the intelligent and painstaking student inevitably arrives at 

 the fact that, after the rise and spread of Christianity, Buddhist 

 writers appropriated some of its characteristics. Mr. Collins's 

 position is supported by several authorities on the history of 

 Buddhism, including Principal Leitneb, Ph.D., Vice-Chau- 

 cellor of the University of the Punjab (who, at the meeting at 

 . which the paper was read, exhibited photographs of some of 

 the ancient Sculptures of India to bear out his statements) ; 

 Professor T. W. PtHYS Davids, Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, and 

 the Rev. S. Coles, M.A. (late of Ceylon), whose remarks 



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