Childhood has its secrets and its mysteries; but who can tell or who can explain them! - Friedrich Max Müller

The position which believers and unbelievers occupy with regard to their various forms of faith is very much the same all over the world. The difficulties which trouble us, have troubled the hearts and minds of men as far back as we can trace the beginnings of religious life. The great problems touching the relation of the Finite to the Infinite, of the human mind as the recipient, and of the Divine Spirit as the source of truth, are old problems indeed; and while watching their appearance in different countries, and their treatment under varying circumstances, we shall be able, I believe, to profit ourselves, both by the errors which others committed before us, and by the truth which they discovered. We shall know the rocks that threaten every religion in this changing and shifting world of ours, and having watched many a storm of religious controversy and many a shipwreck in distant seas, we shall face with greater calmness and prudence the troubled waters at home.

The worship of Shiva, Vishnu, and other popular deities was of the same and in many cases of a more degraded and savage character than the worship of Jupiter, Apollo or Minerva. ... A religion may linger on for a long time, it may be accepted by large masses of the people, because it is there, and there is nothing better. But when a religion has ceased to produce defenders of the faith, prophets, champions, martyrs, it has ceased to live, in the true sense of the word; and in that sense the old orthodox Brahmanism has ceased to live for more than a thousand years.

जर्मनों के पास, मकबरों, गोबलेट्स, सार्वजनिक स्मारकों के लिए उनके रूनेस थे लेकिन ये साहित्यिक रचनाओं के लिए नहीं थे। मिलेटस और राजनीतिक और व्यावसायिक जीवन के अन्य केन्द्रों में चाहे कुछ आयोनियनों ने लिखने की कला हासिल कर ली हो, उन्हें लिखने की सामग्री कहाँ से प्राप्त हुई थी? इससे भी ज्यादा यह बात महत्त्व की है