And the god Mara, mounting his elephant, which was a hundred and fifty leagues high, and had the name "Girded-with-mountains," caused a thousand arms to appear on his body, and with these he grasped a variety of weapons. Also in the remainder of that army, no two persons carried the same weapon; and diverse also in their appearance and countenances, the host swept on like a flood to overwhelm the Great Being. -from "The Attainment of Buddhaship" The preeminent American educator of the 19th century, CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926) believed that a sound liberal education could be achieved not through textbooks but by exploring firsthand the great books and great ideas of Western civilization. (Eliot knew a good education when he saw one: during his time as president of Harvard University, from 1869 till 1909, he transformed the school from a regional college to the preeminent educational institution in the United States.) In this 1910 collection-part of his 50-volume Harvard Classics, his dream library at the foundation of enlightened scholarship-Eliot gathers the great writings of the world's dominant religions. As the faithful read them, examine: .the letters of Paul to the Corinthians, from the Bible .hymns of the Christian Church .the story of the Buddha .Buddhist doctrine on the ego, karma, purity, and the attainment of nirvana .the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita .and chapters from the Koran.