History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c5.18

c5.18

I must ask the reader's indulgence for certain very speculative paragraphs which have found their way into the final chapter. It is not for the research worker to usurp the privileges of the philosopher and theorize at length on the pattern of history. Nevertheless every facet of the world's history must stand in some relationship to every other and to the whole, and it seems to me to be legitimate, in a study of this character, that an effort should be made to establish such a relationship. Since history is not an exact science, any such attempt must inevitably be to some extent speculative. In the main body of my work I have attempted to keep firmly to my subject, and the digressions which from time to time occur, on such subjects as the age of a source, or the location of a town, should be found to have a significant bearing upon the main theme, or to be necessary for the full appreciation of its background. But, with the natural exuberance which arises with the knowledge of a long task nearing completion, I have allowed myself more latitude in the final chapter. The more speculative parts of that chapter, together with some passages of the introduction, I offer to the reader in the hope that they may stimulate him to further thought on the relation of religion and philosophy to sociology and politics.