FROM PROFESSOR DR. E. WASHBURN HOPKINS.
The successor, at Yale University, of Professor William D. Whitney, in the chair of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology, is Professor E. Washburn Hopkins, who before held the same chair in Bryn Mawr College. This fact in itself is an indication of his position as a scholar; and his latest work, “The Religions of India,” in the series of “Handbooks on the History of Religions,” bears testimony to his learning and ability in that realm. Of the matters treated in this volume he says:
“I have read your ‘Threshold Covenant’ with great interest and pleasure. The statements made in respect of Hindu rites all appear to me to be correct, and some of them might be made stronger, notably in the case of the functions of the altar.
“I cannot say that I agree with you in all respects in your inductions from the ceremonial of the Door, but I have at least been furnished with much food for reflection and hints for observation in future investigation on these lines. Your work is a storehouse of useful data, and illustrates many strange customs of India by parallels from other countries, though I should hesitate to refer so much to one primitive principle.
“But, at all events, the facts of the religious phase which you emphasize have been set forth clearly, correctly, and fully, as regards India, to whatever conclusion they may point. I have had great pleasure in following your argument through to the end.”
It may be mentioned that the added facts as to the Door, given in the Appendix, were not in the proof-sheets submitted to Professor Hopkins.