The Project Gutenberg eBook, Fashionable Philosophy, by Laurence Oliphant

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Title: Fashionable Philosophy
and Other Sketches

Author: Laurence Oliphant

Release Date: November 20, 2005 [eBook #17120]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FASHIONABLE PHILOSOPHY***

Transcribed from the 1887 William Blackwood and Sons edition by David
Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

FASHIONABLE PHILOSOPHY AND OTHER SKETCHES

[Title page: title.jpg]

BY LAURENCE OLIPHANT

AUTHOR OF
'PICCADILLY,' 'ALTIORA PETO,' 'MASOLLAM,' ETC.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCLXXXVII

PRICE ONE SHILLING

PREFACE.

That railway travel is not, as a rule, conducive to serious thought, may
fairly be inferred from the class of literature displayed on the
bookstalls at the stations. I have therefore refrained from any attempt
to excite the reflective faculties of the reader, excepting in the first
and third of the accompanying sketches, and even in these have only
ventured to suggest ideas, the full scope and pregnancy of which it must
be left to his own idiosyncrasy to appreciate and develop, the more
especially as they bear upon a certain current of investigation which has
recently become popular.

I have to express my thanks to the Editor of the 'Nineteenth Century
Review' for the kind permission he has granted me to reproduce "The
Sisters of Thibet"; and I avail myself of the opportunity thus afforded
of removing the impression which, to my surprise, was conveyed to me by
letters from numerous correspondents, that the article contained any
record of my own personal experiences. The satire was suggested by the
work of an author whose sincerity I do not doubt, and for whose motives I
have the highest respect, in order to point out what appears to me the
defective morality, from an altruistic and practical point of view, of a
system of which he is the principal exponent in this country, and which,
under the name of Esoteric Buddhism, still seems to possess some
fascination for a certain class of minds.

The other articles originally appeared i