LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK: 15, EAST 16TH STREET 1891 [The right of translation is reserved] BR -548 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. WHEN two years ago I undertook, at the request of the publisher of a collection of theological manuals, to treat the Science of Religion, I at once realised that I was not required to write an encyclopaedia of the subject in question, or a book of reference in which all names should occur, but a manual which should present, in a readable shape, the present state of these studies, and distinguish between the safely established results and those questions which are as yet unsettled. I have worked therefore with this object in view, and have tried to bring the results of the studies that have been carried on in the Science of Religion nearer to students of theology and to all those who interest themselves generally in the history of civilisation. I need not here speak of the importance of these studies for theology as well as for philosophy, and a few remarks will suffice as to the manner in which I have tried to carry out my work. In the introductory section I have collected some material for solving the leading questions which occupy the Science of Religion. The philosophical treatment of these questions lay entirely outside the 23143 1 Mr'92 |