34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ripples and 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 center, " like a dog tied to a post." In the whole uni- 

 verse there is nothing permanent, no eternal substance either of 

 mind or of matter. Personality is a metaphysical 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 trans- 

 mitted 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 con- 

 ditions 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 association to another by a sort of induc- 

 tion. However this may be, Gautama doubtless had a better 

 guarantee for the abolition of transmigration, when no wrack of 

 substance, 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 phe- 

 nomenal reappearance for the sage who has entered Nirvana, it 

 may be safely said of this acme of Buddhistic philosophy the 

 rest is silence.* 



* According to Buddhism, the relation of one life to the next is merely that borne by 

 the flame of one lamp to the flame of another lamp which is set alight by it. To the " Ara- 

 hat " or adept " no outward form, no compound thing, no creature, no creator, no existence 

 of any kind, must appear to be other than a temporary collocation of its component parts 

 fated inevitably to be dissolved." (Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, p. 211.) 



The self is nothing but a group of phenomena held together by the desire of life ; when 

 that desire shall have ceased " the Karma of that particular chain of lives will cease to 

 influence any longer any distinct individual, and there will be no more birth ; for birth, 

 decay, and death, grief, lamentation, and despair will have come, so far as regards that 

 chain of lives, forever 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 " Nirvana " in the work to which I have referred (p. 285 et seq.}. The re- 

 sult 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, conceivability, or perceivability, whether by gods or men. For all practical pur- 

 poses, 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 

 possibility of further pain, sorrow, or sin ; and that which was attained was perfect peace ; 



