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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 49

Preface

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Preface.

The following lecture (the second on the same subject) was delivered on several occasions at Leipsic, four or five years ago, and was favorably received by all cultivated and liberally-minded persons. That this was the case is attested not only by the expressions of approval which the discourse called forth from my numerous audiences, but also by the notices which appeared of it in the local daily press. The orthodox party naturally viewed both lecture and lecturer with the reverse of approbation, and hurled their anathemas upon his devoted head. Some went so far as to denounce him from the pulpit. Victor Von Strauss violently attacked the first lecture, which had meanwhile appeared in print, and I should have published a complete refutation of the scientific part of his criticism—(the wit and persiflage are entirety irrelevant to the subject)—had I not been obliged just at that time to leave Germany and spend a considerable time in travelling, and since then have had occasion to devote myself almost exclusively to other studies. Here I need only say that the explanation I then gave of the Buddhist Nirvana, which explanation Victor Von Strauss believed he had completely refuted, has received complete confirmation during the last few years by the discovery of new inscriptions in Ceylon1, and has been acquiesced in by learned men and Orientalists of standing.2 I am, therefore, more than ever convinced that Nirvana does not signify "the extinction of the flame of existence," as has been thought

1 See a long essay by Dr. Frankfurter in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xii.

2 See, among others, Rhys Davids' "Buddhism," pp. 110—123, and Edwin Arnold, "The Light of Asia." Further, Professor Max Müller's "Lecture on Buddhist Nihilism," in which the talented author some years ago expressed his conviction that the prevailing conception of Nirvana must bo false. This lecture was unfortunately unknown to me until quite recently.

page 3 by most of the Orientalists of Europe, as well as by Schopenhauer, but that it is "a perception of the mind—the pure, joyful Nirvana, free from ignorance and evil desires."1

With these few words of explanation I venture to lay this second lecture before the public, with the intention, in case of its meeting with a kindly welcome from lovers of truth, of publishing at some future date, when I am less occupied than at present, the entire series of lectures delivered by me in Leipsic and other cities of Europe, upon the so often misunderstood religion and literature of my native country.

1 Seo Appendix.