20 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 



whirlpools, which last for a while and then vanish 

 with the causes that gave rise to them, so what 

 seem individual existences are mere temporary 

 associations of phenomena circling round a centre, 

 ' : like a dog tied to a post." In the whole universe 

 there is nothing permanent, no eternal substance 

 either of mind or of matter. Personality is a meta- 

 physical fancy ; and in very truth, not only we, but 

 all things, in the worlds without end of the cosmic 

 phantasmagoria, are such stuff as dreams are made of. 

 What then becomes of karma ! Karma remains 

 untouched. As the peculiar form of energy we call 

 magnetism may be transmitted from a loadstone to a 

 piece of steel, from the steel to a piece of nickel, as it 

 may be strengthened or weakened by the conditions 

 to which it is subjected while resident in each piece, 

 so it seems to have been conceived that karma 

 might be transmitted from one phenomenal associa- 

 tion to another by a sort of induction. However this 

 may be, Gautama doubtless had a better guarantee for 

 the abolition of transmigration, when no wrack of sub- 

 stance, either of Atman or of Brahma, was left behind ; 

 when, in short, a man had but to dream that he 

 willed not to dream, to put an end to all dreaming. 

 This end of life's dream is Nirvana. What Nirvana is 

 the learned do not agree. But, since the best original 

 authorities tell us there is neither desire nor activity, 

 nor any possibility of phenomenal reappearance for 

 the sage who has entered Nirvana, it may be safely 

 said of this acme of Buddhistic philosophy the rest 

 is silence. ( 9 ) 



