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conditions. The article quoted continues :* — While Buddhism 
occasionally yielded so far to popular phraseology as to make 
use of the word “ soul/' it denies altogether that the term is 
anything more than a convenient expression, or that it has 
-any counterpart in fact. According to the same system of 
philosophy, “ There is no life outside the domain of trans- 
migration ; and by the inevitable law of change, that which 
causes existence of any kind would itself be the cause also of 
decay, and bring with it, after a time, the whole train of evils 
from which the tired heart of man seeks relief.” “ Metem- 
psychosis gives way to metamorphosis. As one generation 
dies and gives way to another, so each individual in the long 
chain of life takes up the struggle precisely where that pre- 
ceding left it off. There is nothing eternal but the law of 
cause and effect, and change. Nothing is, everything becomes. 
And so organised life passes away; there only remain the 
accumulated results of all its actions. One lamp is lighted 
at another ; the second flame differs from the first, to which 
it owes its existence. A seed grows into a tree, and pro- 
duces a seed from which arises another tree, different from 
the first, though resulting from it.” But — the sage is recorded 
to have said — such inquiries lead to no profit. And few 
among us will question the conclusion thus expressed. 
In the extracts quoted, have we not the earlier, if not 
original edition, of views and theories of late years being 
served up as if they were fresh and new ? Have we not 
also in those extracts to a great measure the precise language 
which the most recent phase of science has made its own ? 
To my mind, we certainly have to a great and very suggestive 
extent. 
7. In 1880 the state of scientific opinion in Europe generally 
was described as follows :f — “ Positive science is a new agent 
in the world. The strength of positive science lies in the fact 
that Nature is ever present to give it proof. Nature cannot 
lie, and any error in science must arise from our interpretation 
of her oracles. Free-thinking and free-speaking were never 
before so rampant as they are now. Our most learned re- 
views appear, month after month, laden with atheism, infidelity, 
and neo-paganism. Man is no longer better than the fossil 
monster excavated from the rocks — apes, quadrupeds, reptiles, 
and jelly-fish ; a slavish engine ; a tool of flesh and blood, to 
be worn out, then broken and flung away. Scientific mate- 
rialism preys upon the very noblest natures. 
* “ Buddhism,” Encyclop. Britan. 
t The New Truth and the Old Faith — Preface. 
