The Philosophical Review/Volume 1/Review: Chantepie de la Saussaye - Manual of the Science of Religion

by Charles Carroll Everett

Manual of the Science of Religion. By P. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye, Professor of Theology at Amsterdam. Translated from the German by Beatrice S. Colyer-Fergusson (née Max Müller). London and New York, Longmans, Green & Co., 1891. — pp. xiii, 672.

This book is a translation of the first volume of De la Saussaye's very valuable work, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte. It is published as an experiment. If the demand for it is sufficient, the second volume will, we are told in the preface, be translated later. The change of name and this tentative method of publishing, have certain drawbacks. The book-buyer might naturally think that he was getting a new and a complete work. The translation is not marked as "Volume I," and in the judgment of the translator "forms a book by itself." It contains considerations in regard to religion in general, and a special examination of a few religions. It is certainly valuable as far as it goes; but, taken by itself, it is very incomplete. It is to be hoped that the publishers may find encouragement to continue the undertaking.

The change in the title is not the only alteration that has been made in the book. These changes, however, have been made under the direction of the author, to whose latest notes and corrections the translator has had access. It may thus be considered, she tells us, almost as a new edition. In some parts of the work these alterations are considerable. Portions of the history of the religion of Egypt, for instance, have been quite rewritten.

The translation was made under the most favorable circumstances. The author, we are told, revised every page of it; while in certain "difficult and technical" passages the translator had the valuable assistance of her father, Professor Max Müller. It must be confessed that the translation is not all that might have been expected from the conditions under which it was made. We are told, for instance (p. 156), that "the object of fasting is either to arouse or to subdue sensuality. Amongst savages it generally occurs with the former object." We are referred for examples to the fasting by which a magician prepared himself for an important act, and to that which a youth passes through preparatory to the choice of a fetich. Now we all know that Sinnlichkeit often means sensuality; but to give this translation in the case before us is to change the passage into nonsense. In the same connection we are told that "it is well known that abstinence as well as immoderate enjoyment calls forth a nervous crisis." Genuss certainly means enjoyment; but in the present case a word of more objective signification than "enjoyment" would express the meaning of the original much better.

So far as the work of De la Saussaye is concerned, it does not need our commendation, and leaves little place for our criticism. It is marked by wide learning and great common sense. This latter quality is not so common among writers on the religions of the world as to be taken for granted in such a treatise. Some even among the most learned and accurate of scholars appear to feel that their work must have originality; and in order to attain this they sometimes run into extravagance of theory, as an architect may seek to be original by fantastic appendages to the building that he is planning. De la Saussave resists this temptation so far as he is concerned; and in most cases shows little mercy to the kind of originality of which I speak. His severity is, however, that of the judge, or, what amounts to the same thing, that of the historian. He is everywhere dispassionate, and nowhere shows anything of the spirit of a partisan. This quality is an important one for his work, which is, in certain portions especially, rather the history of opinions about religion and religions than of religion itself. The reader of the pages devoted to Egypt, for instance, will leave them, perhaps, with a more vivid impression of warring theories than of anything else.

While the work in general is marked by great accuracy, we notice a few points where the best authorities have not been followed. We are told, for instance (p. 341), that the Shi King "consists of quite three hundred poems, which Kong-tse chose from a collection ten times as large." The original says, it may be remarked, "aus stark 300 Liedern" which is quite a different thing. The statement is based upon the generally received tradition. The arguments upon which Legge bases his contention that Confucius found the Shi King very much as he left it, are, however, too cogent to be neglected. We are told (p. 601) that Max Müller and Rhys Davids have brought forward texts in which "Nirvâna is described as a blessed state of inward peace." This statement is literally true. It would, however, give the false impression that Rhys Davids and Max Müller are at one in regard to this matter; whereas Max Müller teaches that this blessed peace continues after the death of the saint, while Rhys Davids insists that at death the saint, like all other living creatures, ceases to be. On page 600 we read, "Properly speaking, there can be no transmigration in Buddhism, because in the dissolution of the Skandhas all individuality is entirely destroyed. It is therefore only a concession to popular views that transmigration is recognized. ... In reality, there can be no migration of souls, as there is no such thing as a soul." It is, however, only in the case of the saint who has attained Nirvâna that the Skandhas are wholly destroyed, "consciousness" continuing up to that moment to be the connecting link between different existences. In denying that the Buddhists could recognize transmigration the author follows the lead of Rhys Davids. It is another case in which what is literally true may be substantially false. In the Buddhistic philosophy there is nothing permanent. The mistake of these writers is to apply this principle to successive existences only. It should be applied equally to successive moments of the same existence. The Buddhist speaks of the transmigration of souls just as he speaks of his personality as remaining the same through any one existence, and says, "I did this yesterday, and I shall do that to-morrow."

Not the least valuable portion of the book is the large space given to an enumeration of the authorities to be consulted in regard to each theme that is discussed. The worth of the books to which reference is made is often indicated. It would be well if this were done in every case.

C. C. Everett.