for a time their very self, had to be surrendered, before
they could find the Self of Selves, the Old Man, the Looker-on, a
subject independent of all personality, an existence independent of
all life.

When that point had been reached, then the highest knowledge began to
dawn, the Self within (the Pratyagatman) was drawn toward the Highest
Self (the Paramatman), it found its true self in the Highest Self, and
the oneness of the subjective with the objective Self was recognized
as underlying all reality, as the dim dream of religion--as the pure
light of philosophy.

This fundamental idea is worked out with systematic completeness in
the Vedanta philosophy, and no one who can appreciate the lessons
contained in Berkeley's philosophy, will read the Upanishads and the
Brahmasutras, and their commentaries without feeling a richer and a
wiser man.

I admit that it requires patience, discrimination, and a certain
amount of self-denial before we can discover the grains of solid gold
in the dark mines of Eastern philosophy. It is far easier and far more
amusing for shallow critics to point out what is absurd and ridiculous
in the religion and philosophy of the ancient world than for the
earnest student to discover truth and wisdom under strange disguises.
Some progress, however, has been made, even during the short span of
life that we can remember. The Sacred Books of the East are no longer
a mere butt for the invectives of missionaries or the sarcasms of
philosophers. They have at last been recognized as historical
documents, ay, as the most ancient documents in the history of the
human mind, and as palaeontological records of an evolution that begins
to elicit wider and deeper sympathies than the nebular formation of
the planet on which we dwell for a season, or the organic development
of that chrysalis which we call man.

If you think that I exaggerate, let me read you in conclusion what one
of the greatest philosophical critics[345]--and certainly not a man
given to admiring the thoughts of others--says of the Vedanta, and
more particularly of the Upanishads. Schopenhauer writes:

"In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so
elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace
of my life--it will be the solace of my death."[346]

* * * * *

I have thus tried, so far as it was possible in one course of
lectures, to give you some idea of ancient India,