[1] The conception of _the Good_, in its purity, is an _ultimate_ one, "an _absolute Idea_, whose substance loses itself in infinity."--(Bouterweek: _Praktische Aphorismen_, p. 54.) It is obvious that this writer would like to transform the familiar, nay, trivial conception "_Good_" into a sort of _Διἴπετής,_ to be set up as an idol in his temple. _Διἴπετής_ lit., "fallen from Zeus"; and so "heaven-sent," "a thing of divine origin." Cf. Horn., _Il._. XVI, 174; _Od._. IV. 477. Eur., _Bacch._, 1268.--(_Translator_.) [2] The genuineness of the Oupnek'hat has been disputed on the ground of certain marginal glosses which were added by Mohammedan copyists, and then interpolated in the text, it has, however, been fully established by the Sanskrit scholar, F. H. H. Windischmann (junior) in his _Sancara, sive de Theologumenis Vedanticorum_, 1833, p. xix; and also by Bochinger in his book _De la Vie Contemplative chez les Indous_, 1831, p. 12. The reader though ignorant of Sanskrit, may yet convince himself that Anquetil Duperron's word for word Latin translation of the Persian version of the Upanishads made by the martyr of this creed, the Sultan Dârâ-Shukoh, is based on a thorough and exact knowledge of the language. He has only to compare it with recent translations of some of the Upanishads by Rammohun Boy, by Poley, and especially with that of Colebrooke, as also with Röer's, (the latest). These writers are obviously groping in obscurity, and driven to make shift with hazy conjectures, so that without doubt their work is much less accurate. More will be found on this subject in Vol. II. of the _Parerga_, chap. 16, § 184. [_V. The Upanishads_, translated by Max Müller, in _The Sacred Books of the East_, Vols. I. and XV. Cf. also Max Müller, _The Science of Language_, Vol. I., p. 171. Now that an adequate translation of the original exists, the Oupnek'hat has only an historical interest. The value which Schopenhauer attached to the Upanishads is very clearly expressed also in the _Welt als Wille und Vorstellung_, Preface to the first Edition; and in the _Parerga,_ II., chap, xvi., § 184.--(_Translator_.) [3] For the Sûfi, more correctly *Sūfīy a sect which appeared already in the first century of the Hijrah, the reader is referred to: Tholuck's _Blüthensammlung aus der Morgenländischen Mystik_ (Berlin, 1825); Tholuck's _Sûfismus, sive Theosophia Persarum Pantheistica_ (Berlin, 1821); Kremer's _Geschichte der Herrschenden Ideen des Islâms_ (Leipzig, 1868); _Palmer's Oriental Mysticism_ (London, 1867); Gobineau's _Les Religions et les Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrale_ (2nd edit. Paris, 1866); _A Dictionary of Islâm_, by T. P. Hughes (London, 1885), p. 608 sqq.--(_Translator_.)] [4] This is too well-known to need verification by references. The _Cantico del Sole_ by St. Francis of Assisi sounds almost like a passage from the Upanishads or the *Bhagavadgîtâ.--(_Translator_.)]