*The Silesian Horseherd* *(Das Pferdebürla)* Questions of the Hour Answered By *Friedrich Max Müller* Translated From The German By Oscar A. Fechter With A Forward By J. Estlin Carpenter, M.A. Longmans, Green, and Co. 39 Paternoster Row, London New York and Bombay *1903* CONTENTS Preface Chapter I. Chapter II. Chapter III. Chapter IV. Chapter V. Chapter VI. Footnotes PREFACE The story of this volume is soon told. In July, 1895, Professor Max Müller contributed to the _Deutsche Rundschau_ an essay on the lost treatise against Christianity by the philosopher Celsus, known to us through the reply of Origen of Alexandria. This essay, entitled “The ‘True History’(1) of Celsus,” contained an exposition of the doctrine of the Logos and its place in Christian teaching, with reference also to its applications in our modern thought. Among the comments upon it which in due time found their way to Oxford, was a vigorous, if familiar, letter (dated February, 1896) from a German emigrant to the United States, residing in Pennsylvania, who signed himself by the unusual name of the _Pferdebürla_, or “Horseherd.”(2) His criticisms served as a fair sample of others; and his letter was published with a reply from Professor Max Müller in the _Rundschau_ of November, 1896. More letters poured in upon the unwearied scholar who had thus set aside precious time out of his last years to answer his unknown correspondent. One of these, from “Ignotus Agnosticus,” supplied a text for further comment, and the whole grew into a little popular _apologia_, which was published at Berlin in 1899, and entitled _Das Pferdebürla_, or “Questions of the Day answered by Friedrich Max Müller.”