78 



NATURE 



[Nov. 27, 1879 



must begin, rather than with the fragmentary and un- 

 certain relics of older phases of faith. 



In his introduction to the first volume, Prof. Max 

 Miiller offers some useful words of warning to those who 

 approach the study of these old texts with exaggerated 

 ideas of Eastern wisdom and profundity. " By the side of 

 so much that is fresh, natural, simple, beautiful, and 

 true," there is "much that is not only unmeaning, 

 artificial, and silly, but even hideous and repellent." 

 The extracts culled from them by popular writers, in 

 order to illustrate the exalted character of ancient 

 thought, too frequently stand by the side of other 

 passages which painfully recall the infirmities of human 

 nature. Mankind has worked its way but slowly to its 

 present level of knowledge and enlightenment, and the 

 mixed character of these ancient books may serve to 

 remind us that we, too, have our infirmities and im- 

 perfections which will seem as strange to a future 

 generation as those of Eastern sages do to us. Man is 

 the creature of his age, and the best and wisest among us 

 cannot escape from the influences that surround us, and 

 the limitations imposed by the knowledge and prejudices 

 of our own day. 



These translations will be useful in dispelling another 

 illusion which the enthusiastic pioneers into the realm of 

 Oriental religion have occasioned. They are as faithful 

 and accurate as the present state of philological science 

 allows, and the reader will, therefore, miss the modern 

 ideas that have too often been read into passages quoted 

 from the sacred books of the East. By changing a word 

 here, and inserting a word there, by assimilating the 

 expressions of the original to the familiar language of our 

 own Scriptures, a false impression of the character of 

 these old books has not unfrequently been produced. 



The Upanishads, with which the series of translations 

 opens may be described as the text-books of sacred Hindu 

 philosophy. They preceded the era of the Sutras, or 

 grammatical treatises on the Veda, the beginning of which 

 may be roughly placed about 600 B.C., and form part of 

 that of the Brahmanas or Vedic commentaries. They 

 embody the traditional doctrines of the Brahmans regard- 

 ing the highest objects of human interest and inquiry, 

 and in many cases may be shown to have been incor- 

 porated into a Brahmana. They aim at ascertaining the 

 mystic sense of the Veda, and so lay the foundation of 

 the later Hindu metaphysical systems. At the same time 

 thev are not exclusively Brahmanical ; on the contrary, 

 the)' seem composed rather in the interest of the Kshatriya 

 Kings than of the priestly Brahmans. About 150 of them 

 exist, partly in prose, partly in verse, out of which Prof. 

 Max Miiller has selected five of the most important to 

 place before the English reader. It must b e remembered 

 that, like the Brahmanas, the Upa mbna ds form part of 

 the inspired Hindu Canon. 



The sacred laws of the Hindus, as taught in the schools 

 of Apastamba and Gautama, occupy the second volume 

 of the series. They belong to the Sutra period of Indian 

 literature, and we have not to read them long to discover 

 the tyrannically Brahman spirit which they breathe. Dr. 

 Biihler considers that the Gautama Dharmasastra is in 

 the main the oldest of existing works on sacred Hindu 

 law. He further places Apastamba at latest in the fourth 

 or fifth century B.C. A translation of the laws taught in 



the schools of Vasishtha and Baudhayana will follow in 

 another volume. 



The third volume contains Dr. Legge' s translations of 

 the texts of Confucianism, the Shu King, the Shih King, 

 and the Hsiao King. The Shu King is a collection of 

 historical records, beginning with the reign of Yao in the 

 twenty-fourth century B.C., and coming down to that of 

 Hsiang B.C. 961. The Shih King or Book of Poetry 

 consists of 305 ancient poems, five of which belong to the 

 time of the Shang dynasty (B.C. 1766-1123), and the res', 

 to that of the dynasty of Chau (B.C. 1123-586). Its 

 philological and literary value is naturally very great. 

 The short treatise known as the Hsiao King, or classic of 

 filial piety, is regarded by Dr. Legge as containing a 

 Confucian element, but mostly composed in the first 

 century before our era. Astronomical and other reasons 

 on the other hand, dispose him to accept the antiquity 

 claimed by the Shu and the Shih. 



Prof. Max Miiller may be congratulated on the success- 

 ful commencement of his great undertaking. The pub- 

 lication of other sacred texts, including the Koran, the 

 works of Lao-tse, and selected portions of the Buddhist 

 and Zoroastrian Scriptures, are expected soon to follow. 

 For obvious reasons, however, the sacred books of ancient 

 Egypt and Babylonia, of which we now possess consider- 

 able fragments, have been excluded from the series. The 

 Book of the Dead, the most important part of the 

 Egyptian Canon, will be independently issued before long 

 in a revised text and revised translation, while we must 

 wait for future excavations to complete the mutilated 

 hymns of early Chaldea, a portion only of which is at 

 present in our hands. For many years yet we shall have 

 to be content with collecting and preparing the materials 

 that others will use, with sowing the seed which another 

 generation will harvest. We have, indeed, come to realise 

 that there is a science of religion, but it will necessarily 

 be long before the science has passed out of its firs 

 classificatory stage. A. H. Sayce 



MODERN CHROMATICS 

 Modern Chromatics, with Applications to Art and In- 

 dustry. By Ogden N. Rood. International Science 

 Series. (London : C. Kegan Paul and Co., 1S79.) 



IN Sir Charles Eastlake's preface to his translation of 

 Goethe's "Theory of Colours," he took occasion to 

 pronounce against the accepted theory of Newton (that 

 white light consists of coloured lights compounded 

 together), in the following sentences : — 



" It must be admitted that the statements of Goethe 

 contain more useful principles in all that relates to the 

 harmony of colour than any that have been derived from 

 the established doctrine. It is no derogation of the more 

 important truths of the Newtonian theory to say that the 

 views it contains seldom appear in a form calculated for 

 direct application to the arts." 



Since the time of Sir Charles Eastlake, however, great 

 strides have been made in the theory of colour. The 

 work of Prof. Rood now before us is the latest contribu- 

 tion to this branch of science; and in dealing with 

 " Modem Chromatics," the author has brought to bear 

 not merely a profound acquaintance with the work of all 

 recent scientific writers on colour-theory, but also an inti- 

 mate knowledge of the artistic and decorative functions 



