Physical Religion (The Gifford Lectures, 1890)

xii, 410, 16pp.  Red cloth-covered boards with gilt titles on the spine.  Black endpapers.  12mo.  Cloth is worn, sunned over spine, gently rubbed at corners and spine ends, with a few mild marks.  Very slightly cocked.  Text block edges a tad toned.  Internally neat, clean and tight. F Max Muller was a German-born comparative philologist and one of the founders of the academic disciplines of Indology and religious studies.  At times a controversial figure, he was accused of being anti-Christian; he disagreed with Darwinist evolutionary theory and raised interest in Aryan culture, although he despised the resulting Aryan racism.  The delivered the annual series of Gifford Lectures four times, this volume containing his first lecture series, on Natural and Physical Religion, which explore his theories regarding the Veda - the earliest body of Indian scriptures which codified the ideas and practices of the Vedic religion and laid down the basis of classical Hinduism.