Introduction to the Science of Religion; Four Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution in February and May 1870 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS TO THE INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION. Page 17. THE EMPEROR AKBAR. As the Emperor Akbar may be considered the first who ventured on a comparative study of the religions of the world, the following extracts from the Am i Akbari, the Muntakhab at Tawarikh, and the Dabistan, may be of interest at the present moment. They are taken from Dr. Blochmann's new translation of the Ain i Akbari, lately published at Calcutta, a most valuable contribution to the 'Bibliotheca Indica.' It is but seldom that we find in Eastern history an opportunity of confronting two independent witnesses, particularly contemporary witnesses, expressing their opinions of a still reigning Emperor. Abulfazl, the author of the Ain i Akbari, writes as the professed friend of Akbar, whose Vezier he was; Badaoni writes as the declared enemy of Abulfazl, and with an undisguised horror at Akbar's religious views. His work, the Muntakhab at Tawarikh, was kept secret, and was not published till the reign of Jahangir i Akbari, transl. by Blochmann, p. 104 note). I first give some extracts from Abulfazl: P ATN 77. HIS MAJESTY AS THE SPIRITUAL GUIDE OP THE PEOPLE. God, the Giver of intellect and the Creator of matter, forms mankind as He pleases, and gives to some comprehensiveness, and to others narrowness of disposition. Hence the origin of two opposite tendencies among men, one class of whom turn to religious (din), and the other class to worldly thoughts (dunyd). Each of these two divisions select different leaders1, and mutual repulsiveness grows to open rupture. It is then that men's blindness and silliness appear in their true light; it is then discovered how rarely mutual regard and charity are to be met with. But have the religious and the worldly tende...