34 OfetGIN AND DECLIXE OF TH« 



that these prophecies were fulfilled long before, in 

 the person of Ckishxa. In this, they were wiser 

 than the Jews, who, b}^ insisting that the Messiah is 

 not yet come, have plunged themselves into inextri- 

 cable difficulties, and have been forced, at last, to 

 give up any further inquiry into the time of his ap- 

 pearance. In this manner, many of the Samaritans, 

 m order to elude the prophecies concerning Christ, 

 insist that they were fulfilled in the person of 

 Joshua, whose name is the same with Jesus, and 

 who, according to the Hebrew text, was contempo- 

 rary with CiitsHXA ; and they have also a book of 

 the wars of Joshua with Scaubec*, which may be 

 called their Maha'-bha'rat. 



When I said, that the Hindus conceived, that the 

 prophecies concerning a Saviour of the world, were 

 fulfilled in the person of Crishna, I do by no means 

 wish to convey an idea, that he was Christ, from 

 whom he is as distinct a character, and person, as 

 Joshua ; and whose name, with the general outline 

 of his history, existed long before Christ. " Yet 

 the prolix accounts of his life," to use the words of 

 Sir W. Jones, " are filled with narratives of a most 

 extraordinary kind, and most strangely variegated. 

 This incarnate deity of Sanscrit romance, was not 

 only cradled, but educated among shepherds ; a ty- 

 rant at the time of his birth, ordered all the male 

 infants to be slain. He performed amazing, but ridi- 

 culous miracles, and saved multitudes, partly by his 

 miraculous powers, and partly by his arms: and 

 raised the dead, by descending for that purpose into 

 the infernal regions. He was the meekest and best 

 tempered of beings, washed the feet of the BrdhmenSj 



* RelaDd de Saniarit. p. 15, &c. 



