some
new-born infant, while the departing sinner has himself no further
concern in his evil Kharma, but sinks into non-existence the moment his
"conformations" are touched with dissolution? Buddhism acknowledges a
mystery here; no real explanation can be given, and none seems to have
been attempted by Buddhist writers. To be consistent, Gautama, in
denying the existence of God and of the soul as an entity, should have
taught the materialistic doctrine of annihilation. This, however, he
could not do in the face of that deep-rooted idea of transmigration
which had taken entire possession of the Hindu mind. Gautama was
compelled therefore to bridge a most illogical chasm as best he could.
Kharma without a soul to cling to is something in the air. It alights
like some winged seed upon a new-born set of Skandas with its luckless
boon of ill desert, and it involves the fatal inconsistency of investing
with permanent character that which is itself impermanent.

But the question may be asked, "Do we not admit a similar principle when
we speak of a man's influence as something that survives him?" We
answer, "No." Influence is a simple radiation of impressions. A man may
leave an influence which men are free to accept or not, but it is quite
a different thing if he leaves upon a successor the moral liabilities of
a bankrupt character. Gautama's own Kharma, for example, ceased to exist
upon his entering Nirvana; there was no re-birth; but his influence
lives forever, and has extended to millions of his fellow-men.

The injustice involved in the doctrine of Kharma is startling. The
new-born soul that inherits its unsettled score has no memory or
consciousness that connects it with himself; it is not heredity; it is
not his father's character that invests him. This Kharma may have
crossed the ocean from the death-bed of some unknown man of another
race. The doctrine is the more astonishing when we consider that no
Supreme Being is recognized as claiming this retribution. There is no
God; it is a vague law of eternal justice, a law without a law-giver or
a judge. There can therefore be no pardon, no commutation of sentence,
no such thing as divine pity or help. The only way in which one can
disentangle himself is by breaking forever the connection between spirit
and matter which binds him with the shackles of conscious being.

4. Nirvana. No doctrine of Buddhism has been so much in dispute as this.
It has been widely maintained th