SOURCE: A review of Outlines of Mahâyâna Buddhism, in The Monist, Vol. 18, 1908, pp. 477-78.

In the following review, the critic finds Outlines of Mahâyâna Buddhism to be a “very good introduction to a more comprehensive treatise of the subject.”

[Outlines of Mahâyâna Buddhism] is the first book ever written on Mahâyâna Buddhism which makes any claim to a systematic presentation of the subject. Hitherto European scholars of Buddhism were wont to treat Mahâyânism as a mere degenerated form of “Primitive Buddhism,” which is to-day represented by the Buddhism prevailing in Ceylon, Burma, Siam, and other Asiatic countries, and which is designated by the followers of Mahâyânism as Hinayâna Buddhism. Such authors as Beal, Edkin, Wassiljew and others tried to expound the fundamental ideas of Mahâyânism in their treatment of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism...