Forlong - Rivers of Life

xxx
Preface.
before generalizing thereon. And this has been done, the Glossary being thus carried
on pari passu with the studies of each faith. It has been, however, thought advis-
able to put forth these two volumes and chart at once, so that abler writers, and
those who have devoted themselves to special faiths or special aspects of these,
may have here a key which seems sadly wanted by European writers who have
not been able to study Eastern faiths in Eastern words and temples. There are
indeed sufficient difficulties in the way of so large a subject even when we have the
key, and no one is more conscious of this than the author, who, irrespective of the
training, time and diligence required, has had to encounter many obstacles which
stopped or straitened his labors for long periods.
The reader will perhaps notice a. little repetition, but this is generally due to an
endeavor to press arguments home under divers phases and from different sources, and
because, as Mr. Herbert Spencer reminds us, “it is only by varied iteration that alien
conceptions can be forced upon reluctant minds;” and, alas! not even then, thinks
Professor Max Müller. He says the older he grows “the more he feels convinced that
uothing vexes people so much and hardens them in their unbelief and in their dogged
resistance to reforms, as undeniable facts and unanswerable arguments.” “Repeat”
he continues, “the same thing over and over again, undismayed by indifference,
ridicule and contempt, and all the other weapons which the lazy world knows so well
how to employ against those who venture to disturb its peace.” 1 And having done
all! what then? Can neither facts nor arguments convince? “No” says the Pro-
fessor “Reforms are carried by time! and wbat generally prevails in the end are not
logical deductions but some haphazard and frequently irrational movements.”
Let us hope, however, that these remarks only apply to “the lazy world,” none
of whom, it is to be feared, will take up these volumes, but in this case as Erasmus
wrote, “bark at us all the more furiously.” The world is seeking some stable
equilibrium amidst a seething sea of mental unrest, but this is unobtainable till we
have a sound vessel and clear sailing chart. It is in vain we attempt to sail this ocean in
the old coasters of a by-gone age, or try to shut out from eye and ear the ever surging
billows which now everywhere with noisy clamor seek to engulf the old craft. The
teachers we have hitherto trusted did their best, and perhaps honestly, but they knew
not the literature, faiths and sciences with which we are now familiar, and imagined
in their ignorance that all save their own littIe world was full of evil men and things.
They knew no “Sacred Books of the East” or West, yet boldly adventured upon the
1 Selected Essays, I. 253, Ed. 1881.