my death. [Schopenhauer, quoted by Max Mueller.] ... If I were to
look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with
all the wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow--in some parts a
very paradise on earth--I should point to India. If I were asked under
what sky the human mind had most fully developed some of its choicest
gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has
found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention even of
those who have studied Plato and Kant--I should point to India. And if I
were to ask myself from what literature we, here in Europe, we who have
been nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and
of one Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw that corrective which is most
wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive,
more universal, in fact more truly human, a life, not for this life only,
but a transfigured and eternal life--again I should point to India."

The reader should remember that this is not the _opinion_ of an ignorant
enthusiast, but the mature judgment of one of the most profound scholars
and Sanscritists in Europe in his day--Prof. Max Mueller.

"The study of Mythology has assumed an entirely new character, chiefly
owing to the light that has been thrown on it by the ancient Vedic
Mythology of India.

"Buddhism is now known to have been the principal source of our legends
and parables."

The story of the two women who claimed each to be the mother of the same
child is found literally in the Kanjur, translated from the Buddhist
Tripitake, and the "Judgment of Solomon" is only a copy of the older
story.

"The history of all histories, and yet the mystery of all mysteries--take
religion, and where can you study its true origin, its natural growth and
its inevitable decay better than in India, the home of Brahmanism, the
birthplace of Buddhism, and the refuge of Zoroastrianism.

"Take any of the burning questions of the day--popular education, higher
education, parliamentary representation, codification of laws, finance,
emigration, poor-law, and whether you have anything to teach and to try,
or anything to observe and to learn, India will supply you with a
laboratory such as exists nowhere else.

"And in the study of the history of the human mind, and the study of
ourselves, of our true selves, India occupies a place second to no other
country. Whatever sphere of t