394 LITERARY PAPERS 



Again he spoke: "The world is full of sin and sorrow, 

 because it is full of error. Men go astray because they think 

 the delusion is better than truth. Rather than truth they fol- 

 low error, which is pleasant to look at in the beginning, but 

 causes anxiety, tribulation, and misery. . . . The truth is 

 the end and aim of all existence, and the worlds originate so 

 that the truth may come and dwell therein. . . . Those who 

 fail to aspire to the truth have missed the purpose of life." 

 "Truth is the essence of life. Truth cannot be fashioned. 

 Truth is one and the same; it is immutable. Truth is above 

 the power of death; it is omnipresent, eternal, and most glo- 

 rious." Numerous passages of the "Dharma" are of the 

 same purport. "And again I would say, Truth sweeps the 

 world of error; its breath scorches the false and untrue. It 

 is the great Agni, the fire god, whose emblematic flames 

 point heavenward." 



The religious writers denounce the liar and the lying life: 

 "A false balance is abomination to the Lord; but a just 

 weight is his delight." 



The teachings of Christ and his apostles battle against 

 falsehood in the relations of man to man; and in the account 

 of Ananias and Sapphira, his wife, for an illustration, the 

 lie and fraud which stand for lying and perjury against our 

 own higher nature and the God within us are justly punished 

 by death, the figurative total extinction of all progressive 

 powers. 



The lode-star of philosophy is Truth: Truth the unified 

 principle through all and in all. From Truth our being 

 emanates and returns by Truth to its source. Truth is thus 

 glorified by its transitions, defeats, and victories. At each 

 tone of Truth's gamut rests Browning, who emphasizes as 

 no one else its beauty and power. 



A rapid mental survey seems to show that the writings of 

 the past lead in a direct line to Robert Browning; in none 

 of these writings, epics though they be in Truth's cause, 

 does the Truth obtain in such a marked degree, under so 

 many aspects and varieties of conditions, as in our poet's 

 works. In every state and degree Truth is studied from its 



