BUDDHIST METAPHYSICS 19 



supplies the wanting half of Bishop Berkeley's well- 

 known idealistic argument. 



Granting the premises, I am not aw T are of any escape 

 from Berkeley's conclusion, that the "substance" of 

 matter is a metaphysical unknown quantity, of the 

 existence of which there is no proof. What Berkeley 

 does not seem to have so clearly perceived is 

 that the non-existence of a substance of mind is 

 equally arguable ; and that the result of the impartial 

 applications of his reasonings is the reduction of the 

 All to co-existences and sequences of phenomena, 

 beneath and beyond which there is nothing cog- 

 noscible. It is a remarkable indication of the 

 subtlety of Indian speculation that Gautama should 

 have seen deeper than the greatest of modern 

 idealists ; though it must be admitted that, if some 

 of Berkeley's reasonings respecting the nature of 

 spirit are pushed home, they reach pretty much the 

 same conclusion. ( 8 ) 



Accepting the prevalent Brahminical doctrine that 

 the whole cosmos, celestial, terrestrial, and infernal, 

 with its population of gods and other celestial 

 beings, of sentient animals, of Mara and his devils, 

 is incessantly shifting through recurring cycles 

 of production and destruction, in each of which 

 every human being has his transmigratory repre- 

 sentative, Gautama proceeded to eliminate sub- 

 stance altogether ; and to reduce the cosmos to a 

 mere flow of sensations, emotions, volitions, and 

 thoughts, devoid of any substratum. As on the 

 surface of a stream of water, we see ripples and 



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