Levi

of the first important canto, describing the birth of Buddha, and the visit of the aged Asita. There is little new in it, he says, but “ nowhere else, that I know of, is it told with anything like _ the same poetic fire.” “Lastly it cannot but be that this poem will again throw into strong relief the many startling resemblances, between the legendary account of the circumstances preceding, attending, and following the birth of Buddha, and the Gospel story _ of the birth of Christ.” What the reason for the resemblance may be is a question on which no competent authority has been quick to dogmatise (see Buddha). In this canto we read: “The bli he _ gives is greater than that of the world’s maker: in dispelling darkne he is better than the moon: there is none to whom he can be compared: Glory be to Buddha.”