tter has been grouped within five categories,
_viz._: (1) The Life of the Buddha; (2) the Doctrine; (3) the Sangha,
or monastic order; (4) a brief history of Buddhism, its Councils and
propaganda; (5) some reconciliation of Buddhism with science. This, it
is believed, will largely increase the value of the little book, and
make it even more suitable for use in Buddhist schools, of which, in
Ceylon, over one hundred have already been opened by the Sinhalese
people under the general supervision of the Theosophical Society. In
preparing this edition I have received valuable help from some of my
oldest and best qualified Sinhalese colleagues. The original edition
was gone over with me word by word, by that eminent scholar and
bhikkhu, H. Sumangala, Pradh[=a]na N[=a]yaka, and the Assistant
Principal of his P[=a]l[=i] College at Colombo, Hyeyantuduve Anunayaka
Terunnanse; and the High Priest has also kindly scrutinised the present
revision and given me invaluable points to embody. It has the merit,
therefore, of being a fair presentation of the Buddhism of the
"Southern Church," chiefly derived from first-hand sources. The
Catechism has been published in twenty languages, mainly by Buddhists,
for Buddhists.

H. S. O.

ADYAR, 17_th May_, 1897.

PREFACE

TO THE THIRTY-SIXTH EDITION

The popularity of this little work seems undiminished, edition after
edition being called for. While the present one was in the press a
second German edition, re-translated by the learned Dr. Erich Bischoff,
was published at Leipzig, by the Griebens Co., and a third translation
into French, by my old friend and colleague, Commandant D. A. Courmes,
was being got ready at Paris. A fresh version in Sinhalese is also
preparing at Colombo. It is very gratifying to a declared Buddhist
like myself to read what so ripe a scholar as Mr. G. R. S. Mead, author
of _Fragments of of a Faith Forgotten_, _Pistis Sophia_, and many other
works on Christian origins, thinks of the value of the compilation. He
writes in the _Theosophical Review_: "It has been translated into no
less than twenty different languages, and may be said without the
faintest risk of contradiction, to have been the busiest instrument of
Buddhist propaganda for many a day in the annals of that long somnolent
dharma. The least that learned Buddhists of Ceylon can do to repay the
debt of gratitude they owe to Colonel Olcott and other members of the
Theosophical Society who h