About the Book In the second place, the Author desires that a wide interval of consideration should be allowed between the original religion of the Hindus ancient beyond count and the writer's acceptation of its sublime philosophical groundwork, and the modern practice of the Indian beliefs, deformed as they have become, in the course of the centuries indeed, as all religions become as time advances with-by forms more or less. mechanical, and by superstition, in the greater, or lesser degree, gross-that is, humanly gross. It is the fact that the mere Man View of their essence, of their solemnities, and of their character, constitutes creeds. The modem Indian religions are religions. In short, are Codes? Codes fitted to the Peoples.
Treating as this work humbly does upon matters the most abstruse that can occupy the mind of the Thinker, and involving as the perusal of this book necessarily must the power of the seizure of pure abstractions, the author need not say that, as he is only seeking to render distinct, and to clearly expound, the opinions of some of the greatest of men, his book is not to be judged lightly. In fact, it is a treatise specially addressed to thinkers and to them alone.
Preface Two things the Author must premise in relation to the following book. In the first place, the Philosophical Results attained in this volume stand as the persuasions of years of much research, and of a great amount of thought. This upon subjects which must ever, in the nature of things, surmount and exceed all others in importance. In the business of the world, student-thought is not valued. In the activity of the world, student-work is ignored. It is only in its calm regards to the future-at the rarest times-that Civilisation, and especially our Modern Hyper Civilisation, grows grave in its reflections on what Human Nature should mean: of what the destinies of our "Mysterious Race" should be. What they should really be.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
