TEN GREAT RELIGIONS: AN ESSAY IN COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY. BY JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. Prophets who have been since the world began."- LUKE i. 70. "Gentiles.. 、、 who show the work (or influence) of the (that) law which is written in "God.... hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of BOSTON: JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY, 1871. R118.71.3 772.11995 1871 may 22 the Publishers. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, BY JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & Co., CAMBRIDGE. PREFACE. THE HE first six chapters of the present volume are composed from six articles prepared for the Atlantic Monthly, and published in that magazine in 1868. They attracted quite as much attention as the writer anticipated, and this has induced him to enlarge them, and add other chapters. His aim is to enable the reader to become acquainted with the doctrines and customs of the principal religions of the world, without having to consult numerous volumes. He has not come to the task without some preparation, for it is more than twentyfive years since he first made of this study a speciality. In this volume it is attempted to give the latest results of modern investigations, so far as any definite and trustworthy facts have been attained. But the writer is well aware of the difficulty of being always accurate in a task which involves such interminable study and such an amount of details. He can only say, in the words of a Hebrew writer: "If I have done well, and as is fitting the story, it is that which I desired; but if slenderly and meanly, it is that which I could attain unto." |