(OBERPRÄSIDIALRAT THEODOR SCHULTZE). A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY ARTHUR PFUNGST, M. R. A. S. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY L. F. DE WILDE. LONDON: PUBLISHERS TO THE INDIAN OFFICE. 1902. KD 3289 HARVARD Mar. 15, 1941 Estate of Proz Charles, Lanman Раз PRINTED BY E. J. BRILL, LEYDEN (HOLLAND). PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. Whilst preparing this second edition for the press, I have made use of a great many communications and letters, for which I have to thank the relations of my late friend, especially Dr Ernst Rohlff of Potsdam, and I hope that this new and enlarged edition may excite the same interest, which was so extensively accorded to the first. It gave me great satisfaction to find that this small pamphlet had proved the means of making known for the first time to a greater extent the unique personality of "the German Buddhist" the man, who, more than anyone else, seems called. upon to speak the decisive word in the religious quarrels of our time. "Oberpräsidialrat" Schultze certainly did not surmise, during the last years of his life, that, the question of the civilizing value of Christianity compared with that of Buddhism, -- a problem, the study of which always greatly attracted him, would so soon turn out to be one of the highest actual interest. But on reading the works, in which he deals in terrible earnest with these questions, which nowadays are being discussed at every tavern-table (wirthshaustisch) in Germany, we arrive at the conviction, that he must have foreseen how the view of the Universe, prevalent in the Western sphere of culture, would at no distant date, fatally clash with that of Eastern Asia. While, in the first edition, I expressed the expectation that I might have done Science a service through my work, I now wish to give utterance to the hope, that this new edition may be privileged to attract the notice of politicians to Schultze's works. More than one of the most difficult problems, which, at the present moment, demand the closest attention from Parliaments and Cabinets - I should like to cite as an instance, the discussions as to the value of missions, have been dealt with in detail by Schultze. The conclusions, which he arrived at, should be esteemed the higher, because, standing aloof from the quarrels of the day, he solved those problems, free from any passionate partisanship, in a purely theoretic manner and exclusively by scientific methods. The work of his life "The Religion of the Future" which was out of print for some time, has now been published in a greatly enlarged edition (published by the Neuer Frankfurter Verlag. Frankfurt a.M.). The object of this slight biographical sketch, will have been attained, should many readers find occasion to consult this book, which has not yet reached the general circulation, to which its great merits entitle it. Dr. ARTHUR PFUNGST. Frankfurt a.M., Jan., 1901. |