First published in 1894 and reprinted several times since, The Gospel of Buddha by Paul Carus has attained the stature of a classic today. This book is not designed to contribute to the solution of historical problems nor is it an attempt at popularising the Buddhist religious writings. It sketches the picture of a religious leader of the remote past with the view of making it bear upon the living present and become a factor in the formation of the future. The bulk of its contents is derived from the old Buddhist canon. Many passages, and indeed the most important ones, are literally copied in translations from the original texts. Some are rendered freely, others have been rearranged, and still others are abbreviated.

Dr. Paul Carus captures in his simple and sensitive prose, as Olga Kopetzky has done in her delicate drawings to the volume, the radiant spirit of Buddhism and the poetic grandeur of the Buddha's personality.