pean language. The temperament and theory described as pessimism are
European. They imply an attitude of revolt, a right to judge and
grumble. Why did the Deity make something out of nothing? What was his
object? But this is not the attitude of Eastern thought: it generally
holds that we cannot imagine nothing: that the world process is without
beginning or end and that man must learn how to make the best of it.

The Far East purged Buddhism of much of its pessimism. There we see that
the First Truth about suffering is little more than an admission of the
existence of evil, which all religions and common sense admit. Evil
ceases in the saint: nirvana in this life is perfect happiness. And
though striving for the material improvement of the world is not held up
conspicuously as an ideal in the Buddhist scriptures (or for that matter
in the New Testament), yet it is never hinted that good effort is vain.
A king should be a good king.

Renunciation is a great word in the religions of both Europe and Asia,
but in Europe it is almost active. Except to advanced mystics, it means
abandoning a natural attitude and deliberately assuming another which it
is difficult to maintain. Something similar is found in India in the
legends of those ascetics who triumphed over the flesh until they become
very gods in power[56]. But it is also a common view in the East that he
who renounces ambition and passion is not struggling against the world
and the devil but simply leading a natural life. His passions indeed
obey his will and do not wander here and there according to their fancy,
but his temperament is one of acquiescence not resistance. He takes his
place among the men, beasts and plants around him and ceasing to
struggle finds that his own soul contains happiness in itself.

Most Europeans consider man as the centre and lord of the world or, if
they are very religious, as its vice-regent under God. He may kill or
otherwise maltreat animals for his pleasure or convenience: his task is
to subdue the forces of nature: nature is subservient to him and to his
destinies: without man nature is meaningless. Much the same view was
held by the ancient Greeks and in a less acute form by the Jews and
Romans. Swinburne's line

Glory to man in the highest, for man is the master of things

is overbold for professing Christians but it expresses both the modern
scientific sentiment and the ancient Hellenic sentiment.

But such a line of poetry