Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/24

12 Wang-Tsun, and fifteen other men to the West, to obtain information concerning the doctrine of Buddha.

"In the tenth year (a.d. 67), these emissaries being sent into Central India, procured a statue of Buddha, and some Sanscrit books, which they conveyed on a white horse to the city of Lo-yang." The Chinese ambassadors, however, lost sight of the true object of their mission ; they suffered themselves to be seduced by the priests of India ; and from that epoch is to be dated the introduction of Buddhism into China.

The idea of a Divine Incarnation prevailed equally among the Gothic tribes of the North. They were so perplexed and agitated by prophetic rumours from the East, that they sent emissaries to seek for the divine being so impatiently expected over the whole world; and it was these strange embassies that formed the foundation of the Edda, which concludes with these words: "The new gods then took the names of the ancient ones, and appeared like real gods."

The fact was, that audacious men, profiting by the preconceived idea generally prevalent, gave themselves out for the promised Messiah, and that the divinity of Odin was acknowledged in the kingdom of Glyphe, and Trenmor was deified by Fingal.

That a Saviour, and a regeneration of the human race, was expected in all parts of the civilised world, in consequence of ancient prophecies, cannot be denied. Such an event was confidently looked for in the West and the East, in Persia, India, and China, and even among the wandering tribes of Upper Asia. In the intermediate countries, as among the Hebrews, it was