s is not so' (i. 195). So we must not,
should not, simply place the myths and customs of savages side by side
with those of Hindus and Greeks. It is taboo.



Dr. Oldenberg


Now Dr. Oldenberg, it seems, uses such comparisons of savage and Aryan
faiths. Dr. Oldenberg is (i. 209) one of several '_very thoughtful
scholars_' who do so, who break Mr. Max Muller's prohibition. Yet (ii.
220) '_no true scholar_ would accept any comparison' between savage
fables and the folklore of Homer and the Vedas 'as really authoritative
_until fully demonstrated on both sides_.' Well, it _is_ 'fully
demonstrated,' or 'a very thoughtful scholar' (like Dr. Oldenberg) would
not accept it. Or it is _not_ demonstrated, and then Dr. Oldenberg,
though 'a very thoughtful,' is not 'a true scholar.'



Comparisons, when odious


Once more, Mr. Max Muller deprecates the making of comparisons between
savage and Vedic myths (i. 210), and then (i. 220) he deprecates the
_acceptance_ of these very comparisons 'as really authoritative until
fully demonstrated.' Now, how is the validity of the comparisons to be
'fully demonstrated' if we are forbidden to make them at all, because to
do so is to 'obscure' the Veda 'by light from the Dark Continent'?



A Question of Logic


I am not writing 'quips and cranks;' I am dealing quite gravely with the
author's processes of reasoning. 'No true scholar' does what 'very
thoughtful scholars' do. No comparisons of savage and Vedic myths should
be made, but yet, 'when fully demonstrated,' 'true scholars would accept
them' (i 209, 220). How can comparisons be demonstrated before they are
made? And made they must not be!



'Scholars'


It would be useful if Mr. Max Muller were to define 'scholar,' 'real
scholar,' 'true scholar,' 'very thoughtful scholar.' The latter may err,
and have erred--like General Councils, and like Dr. Oldenberg, who finds
in the Veda 'remnants of the wildest and rawest essence of religion,'
totemism, and the rest (i. 210).

Martha Finley (1828 - 1909) was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26th, 1828 in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the psodonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.

Anonymous may refer to: Anonymus, the Latin spelling, may refer to: