TO NERO CLAUDIUS CÆSAR, Harry was very much pleased with this inscription, and thought it a pity that any doubts of its authenticity should have been suggested, when there are such good reasons for believing it to be genuine. To this Mrs. Beaufoy replied: "Positiveness in argument often defeats its own purpose; and I assure you, Harry, that Dr. Lardner is indebted for much of the high estimation his writings have obtained, to that very caution and candour, which, for want of fully understanding its value, you have been inclined to blame. Whether a shade of doubt rests upon this inscription or not, is a matter of no conse *Lardner, Test. Anc. Hea. ch. iii. quence, because we have sufficient evidence from history, that, before the destruction of Jerusalem, the gospel was preached, not only in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, but northward as far as Scythia, southward in Ethiopia, eastward as far as India, westward in Spain and Britain*." "I thought," said Harry, "the inhabitants of India had been the followers of Mahomet or Brahma. If Christianity was preached there, how came it to be lost?" "It was not lost, my dear Harry. When the Portuguese arrived in India, towards the close of the fifteenth century, they were surprised to find upwards of a hundred Christian churches on the coast of Malabar. These churches had, for one thousand three hundred years, been govered by bishops appointed by the patri arch of Antioch. When the Portuguese, who, you know, were Roman Catholics, became acquainted with the purity and *Newton, p. 23. simplicity of the worship of the Indian Christians, they were offended, and wished to impose upon them the corruptions of their own church. These churches,' said the Portuguese, 'belong to the Pope.' "Who is the Pope?' said the natives: "we never heard of him. We are of the 'true faith, whatever you from the West 'may be, for we come from the place "where the followers of Christ were first called Christians.' When the Portuguese thought their pow er was sufficiently established, they invaded these tranquil churches, sought to impose their own customs upon them, seized some of the native clergy, and doomed them to suffer the death of heretics. The Indian Christians then first heard of the terrible Inquisition, and that its fires were already lighted at Goa, in the neighbourhood of their own land. The churches on the sea-coast were at length induced to agree to a sort of compromise with the S invaders. They consented to acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope, but insisted on retaining their own Liturgy, and praying in their own language. The churches in the interior would not yield to Rome: they proclaimed eternal war against the Inquisition: they hid their books, and fled to the mountains. Two hundred years elapsed, and the retreat of these devoted Christians remained unknown. They were believed to have settled among the mountains, but many doubted whether they still continued to exist *." "But did nobody seek them? Had no one the curiosity or the kindness to inquire the fate of such an interesting people?" "Yes, my dear boy. Dr. Buchanan, a Scotchman, and also a clergyman of the church of England, who resided for some years in India, resolved to undertake this. *Buchanan's Christian Researches, p. 106, 109. journey of Christian kindness. For this purpose, in the year 1806, he visited the court of the rajah of Travancore, in whose dominions the Syrian Christians (for so they are called from their original connexion with the primitive church of Antioch) were supposed to reside. When Dr. Buchanan told the rajah that the Syrian Christians were believed to be of the same religion as the English, he replied, that he thought this could not be the case, or he must have heard of it before: however, he gave the traveller leave to proceed on his journey. You would like to read his narrative, Harry, and to accompany him, in imagination, through those beautiful valleys which lie at the feet of the Ghauts *." "I should like it very much, especially if he found the people he was seeking." "Then you will be gratified, for he found their secluded churches, in appear * Buchanan's Christian Researches, p. 110, 113, |