66 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS n 



shade of a shadow of permanent existence by a 

 metaphysical tour de force of great interest to the 

 student of philosophy, seeing that it supplies the 

 wanting half of Bishop Berkeley's well-known 

 idealistic argument. 



Granting the premises, I am not aware of any 

 escape from Berkeley's conclusion, that the ' sub 

 stance* 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 cognoscible. 

 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 



