"AN ENGLISH PREACHER OF NIRVANA."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'] Sin.,—As one of the very few persons who can claim to be well -acquainted with James Hinton's printed MSS., I should like to point out the relation which the selection entitled " Philosophy and Religion" bears to those MSS. Miss Ellice Hopkins re- fuses to accept it " as any fair or final representation of his -views on such momentous points as a future state, &c." 4‘ Philosophy and Religion" makes no such claim, as may be seen by referring to the prefaces ; it claims to represent, as -adequately as may be where the extracts are necessarily brief, the salient points in the process of Hinton's thought during some five or six years, as it is embodied in four large volumes of printed MSS., altogether about two thousand five 'hundred pages of closely-printed matter. It is not, surely, absurd to assume that these volumes may have a voice in the representation of Hinton's opinions, as well as those letters to Mr. King, which Miss Hopkins seems alone able to accept as his "deliberately recorded convictions." And if there are few references to a future life, as Miss Hopkins understands it, in " Philosophy and Religion," it is because those references are few in the MSS. Such an omission may be accounted for on the theory of the "fluxion method," or otherwise. I would myself suggest that Hinton, whilst distinctly identifying himself with the Christian religion, aimed, as regards such questions, to attain a statement of truth which had wider significance than the dogma of individual religion. Hence, the interesting parallel between his views and early Buddhism, which Mr. Rhys Davids has pointed out.
In any case, the charge of " imperfect editorship " is un- founded. " Philosophy and Religion " certainly succeeds in representing the printed MSS.; and that it also substantially represents Mr. Hinton's views, is the opinion of those who knew him best.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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