Book Description

Mr. Rhys Davids' Hibbert Lectures. THE volume containing the last series of the Hibbert Lectures, delivered by Mr. Rhys Davids seven months ago, has appeared too recently to allow of our giving at present any adequate review of it. We have, however, much satisfaction in promising our readers an article on the subject, in our next number, by Dr. Kern, of Leiden, whose name will be familiar to students of the Indian religious as that of an accomplished scholar and earnest and patient investigator, who, like the Hibbert Lecturer, can speak on the subject of Buddhism with the authority that comes of knowledge and insight. How much light has been thrown on the more obscure and difficult questions connected with the life and teaching of Gotama Buddha is strikingly shown in these deeply interesting Lectures. Mr. Rhys Davids has selected with great skill the main points on which to concentrate the attention of his hearers and readers, suggesting resemblances or contrasts, parallelisms and divergences, which serve in many ways his purpose of illustrating the Origin and Growth of Religion. He is careful to warn his readers against the danger of being misled by merely superficial points of comparison, while he often calls attention to less apparent but more real ones which are much more significant. Beginning with a consideration of the place of Buddhism in the development of religious thought, Mr. Rhys Davids gives a concise account of the religious and philosophical ideas amongst which it was born.... -The Modern Review, Vol. 3