omposed of the
finest conceivable substance, yet if substance at all--as Dr. Jaeger
seems able to prove, and ages of human intercourse with the weird
phantoms of the shadow world imply--it must in time perish. What remains
is that changeless part of man, which most philosophers call Spirit, and
Nirvana is its necessary condition of existence. The only dispute
between Buddhist authorities is whether this Nirvanic existence is
attended with individual consciousness, or whether the individual is
merged in the whole, as the extinguished flame is lost in the air. But
there are those who say that the flame has not been annihilated by the
blowing out. It has only passed out of the visible world of matter into
the invisible world of Spirit, where it still exists and will ever
exist, as a bright reality. Such thinkers can understand Buddha's
doctrine and, while agreeing with him that soul is not immortal, would
spurn the charge of materialistic nihilism, if brought against either
that sublime teacher or themselves.

The history of Sakya Muni's life is the strongest bulwark of his
religion. As long as the human heart is capable of being touched by
tales of heroic self-sacrifice, accompanied by purity and celestial
benevolence of motive, it will cherish his memory. Why should I go
into the particulars of that noble life? You will remember that he was
the son of the king of Kapilavastu--a mighty sovereign whose
opulence enabled him to give the heir of his house every luxury that a
voluptuous imagination could desire: and that the future Buddha
was not allowed even to know, much less observe, the miseries of
ordinary existence. How beautifully Edwin Arnold has painted for us in
_The Light of Asia_ the luxury and languor of that Indian Court,
"where love was gaoler and delights its bars". We are told that:

The king commanded that within those walls
No mention should be made of age or death
Sorrow or pain, or sickness ...
And every dawn the dying rose was plucked,
The dead leaves hid, all evil sights removed:
For said the king, "If he shall pass his youth
Far from such things as move to wistfulness
And brooding on the empty eggs of thought,
The shadow of this fate, too vast for man,
May fade, belike, and I shall see him grow
To that great stature of fair sovereignty,
When he shall rule all lands--if he _will rule_--
The king of kings and glory of his time."

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