Charles Carroll Everett

“ Some even among the most learned and accurate of scholars appear to feel that their work must have originality; and in order to attain this they sometimes run into extravagance of theory, as an architect may seek to be original by fantastic appendages to the building that he is planning. ”

“ In the Buddhistic philosophy there is nothing permanent. The mistake of these writers is to apply this principle to successive existences only. It should be applied equally to successive moments of the same existence. The Buddhist speaks of the transmigration of souls just as he speaks of his personality as remaining the same through any one existence, and says, "I did this yesterday, and I shall do that to-morrow."
Not the least valuable portion of the book is the large space given to an enumeration of the authorities to be consulted in regard to each theme that is discussed. ”

“ He is everywhere dispassionate, and nowhere shows anything of the spirit of a partisan. This quality is an important one for his work, which is, in certain portions especially, rather the history of opinions about religion and religions than of religion itself. ”

“ The placing Newman and Martineau among the philosophers causes the picture of theology in England to lack somewhat of proportion; the more liberal thinking outside the limits of the national church not being recognized. ”

“ It is therefore only a concession to popular views that transmigration is recognized. ... In reality, there can be no migration of souls, as there is no such thing as a soul." It is, however, only in the case of the saint who has attained Nirvâna that the Skandhas are wholly destroyed, "consciousness" continuing up to that moment to be the connecting link between different existences. In denying that the Buddhists could recognize transmigration the author follows the lead of Rhys Davids. It is another case in which what is literally true may be substantially false. ”

“ It was a happy thought to request such a work of Professor Pfleiderer. No one could be better fitted to perform it. His previous work has been received with great interest by English and American theologians: and he has loved to present his original thought in connection with the history of the development of philosophical and religious ideas. So far as German theology is concerned, he is writing of what is as familiar to him as his daily speech. ”

“ In reading it one would rarely suspect that it was not an original work, written by a master of English composition. It is rare that one suspects that the German of Pfleiderer is not correctly rendered. We are all the more surprised to find in one place the word "Vorstellungen" which happily is given, translated by the word "intuitions." ”

“ The book-buyer might naturally think that he was getting a new and a complete work. The translation is not marked as "Volume I," and in the judgment of the translator "forms a book by itself." It contains considerations in regard to religion in general, and a special examination of a few religions. It is certainly valuable as far as it goes ”

“ Amongst savages it generally occurs with the former object." We are referred for examples to the fasting by which a magician prepared himself for an important act, and to that which a youth passes through preparatory to the choice of a fetich. ”