96 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS II 



wise a great part in the Buddhist theory) which 

 actually caused the birth of the new individual who 

 was to inherit the Karma of the former one. But, 

 how this took place, how the craving desire produced 

 this effect, was acknowledged to be a mystery patent 

 only to a Buddha." (Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, 

 p. 95.) 



Among the many parallelisms of Stoicism and 

 Buddhism, it is curious to find one for this Tanha, 

 ' thirst,' or ' craving desire ' for life. Seneca writes 

 (Epist. Ixxvi. 18) : "Si enim ullum aliud est bonum 

 quam honestum, sequetur nos aviditas vitce aviditas 

 rerum vitam instruentium : quod est intolerabile 

 infinitum, vagum." 



Note 8 (p. 66). 



"The distinguishing characteristic of Buddhism 

 was that it started a new line, that it looked upon 

 the deepest questions men have to solve from an 

 entirely different standpoint. It swept away from 

 the field of its vision the whole of the great soul- 

 theory which had hitherto so completely filled and 

 dominated the minds of the superstitious and the 

 thoughtful alike. For the first time in the history 

 of the world, it proclaimed a salvation which each 

 man could gain for himself and by himself, in this 

 world, during this life, without any the least reference 

 to God, or to Gods, either great or small. Like the 

 Upanishads, it placed the first importance on know- 

 ledge ; but it was no longer a knowledge of God, it 

 was a clear perception of the real nature, as they 



