Rev. John P. Peters, D. D., of New York, Treasurer.
Prof. Richard J. H. Gottheil, of Columbia University.
Prof. Paul Haupt, of the Johns Hopkins University.
Prof. F. W. Hooper, of the Brooklyn Institute.
Prof. J. F. Jameson, of Brown University.
President J. G. Schurman, of Cornell University.
For its first course the Committee selected as lecturer Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids, Ph.D. LL.D., of London, England, who delivered a course of lectures in the winter of 1894-95 on The History and Literature of Buddhism, at the following places, with the co-operation of the institutions named:
Baltimore, before the Johns Hopkins University.
New York, before the Columbia University.
Philadelphia, before the University of Pennsylvania Lecture Association.
Providence, before the Brown University Lecture Association.
Professor Davids’ lectures were published in 1896 by arrangement with Messrs. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, the publishers to the Committee, as the First Series of The American Lectures on the History of Religions. As the second lecturer, the Committee chose Prof. Daniel G. Brinton, A.M., M.D., LL.D., Sc.D., of Philadelphia; and as the subject, “The Religions of Primitive Peoples.” Dr. Brinton, who holds the chair of American Archæology and Linguistics in the University of Pennsylvania, is a leading authority on the languages and customs of the American Indians, and on Anthropology in general. His studies have led him also into the domain of Prehistoric Archæology and Comparative Mythology. As the product of his investigations in the latter field, he published as early as 1868, _The Myths of The New World_, which at once attracted the attention of scholars, and has passed through several editions since. In 1876 he issued an important contribution to the Science of Religion, under the title, _The Religious Sentiment_. In addition to this he has published a large number of works on American Languages on Anthropology, and Archæology, the most notable of which is the series Library of Aboriginal American Literature. His papers, scattered in various scientific periodicals of this country and Europe, number several hundred.
The lectures delivered by him under the auspices of the Committee represent the ripe fruit of many years of study, and will, we feel assured, be welcomed as an important contribution to a subject now attracting much attention.