DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49379#0007
rREFACE
Dear Reader,
I am fully aware of the shortcomings of my
work, and it is solely on your magnanimity that this
booklet is introduced into the world. Three months
after taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts it occurr-
ed to me to write an essay on ‘ Buddha and his Life-
work,’ but the task had to be given up shortly
afterwards, 1 having thought that a systematic
treatise would do some justice to the subject.
The book, as it stands in its present form, was
begun early in August 190’1 A. D. and was, with
some interruptions, completed in February 1902. It
was written in hours stolen from College work, but
1 do not mean to say that incompetence may pass for
want of leisure.
It may be asked why did 1 presume to hit upon
so large a subject for the first time ; and it is quite
reasonable that such a question be asked. My
answer is that every individual has some feeling for
‘hero-worship’ in him; and 1 thought it most proper
to pay my tribute of respect to the greatest bene-
factor of the world in this way. Why to him first of
all, because “we must love the highest when we see it.”
Dear Reader,
I am fully aware of the shortcomings of my
work, and it is solely on your magnanimity that this
booklet is introduced into the world. Three months
after taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts it occurr-
ed to me to write an essay on ‘ Buddha and his Life-
work,’ but the task had to be given up shortly
afterwards, 1 having thought that a systematic
treatise would do some justice to the subject.
The book, as it stands in its present form, was
begun early in August 190’1 A. D. and was, with
some interruptions, completed in February 1902. It
was written in hours stolen from College work, but
1 do not mean to say that incompetence may pass for
want of leisure.
It may be asked why did 1 presume to hit upon
so large a subject for the first time ; and it is quite
reasonable that such a question be asked. My
answer is that every individual has some feeling for
‘hero-worship’ in him; and 1 thought it most proper
to pay my tribute of respect to the greatest bene-
factor of the world in this way. Why to him first of
all, because “we must love the highest when we see it.”