102 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS. n 



for birth, decay, and death, grief, lamentation, and 

 despair will have come, so far as regards that chain 

 of lives, for ever to an end." 



The state of mind of the Arahat in which the 

 desire of life has ceased is Nirvana. Dr. Oldenberg 

 has very acutely and patiently considered the various 

 interpretations which have been attached to " Nir- 

 vana " in the work to which I have referred (pp. 

 285 et seq.). The result of his and other discussions 

 of the question may I think be briefly stated thus : 



1. Logical deduction from the predicates attached 

 to the term " Nirvana " strips it of all reality, con- 

 ceivability, or perceivability, whether by Gods or 

 men. For all practical purposes, therefore, it comes 

 to exactly the same thing as annihilation. 



2. But it is not annihilation in the ordinary 

 sense, inasmuch as it could take place in the living 

 Arahat or Buddha. 



3. And, since, for the faithful Buddhist, that 

 which was abolished in the Arahat was the possibil- 

 ity of further pain, sorrow, or sin; and that which 

 was attained was perfect peace; his mind directed 

 itself exclusively to this joyful consummation, and 

 personified the negation of all conceivable existence 

 and of all pain into a positive bliss. This was all 

 the more easy, as Gautama refused to give any dog- 

 matic definition of Nirvana. There is something 

 analogous in the way in which people commonly talk 

 of the " happy release " of a man who has been long 

 suffering from mortal disease. According to their 

 own views, it must always be extremely doubtful 

 whether the man will be any happier after the " re- 



