ese
laws be compared with those of the savage races it will be found that
most of them are also factors of primitive ethics. Therefore we say
that the Hindu code as a whole is savage and antique, and that,
excluding religious excess and debauchery, it is on a par with the
modern ethical code only nominally. In reality, however, this savage
and ancient code is not on a level with that of to-day. And the reason
is that the ideal of each is different. In the savage and old-world
conception of morality it is the ideal virtue that is represented by
the code. It was distinct laudation to say of a man that he did not
lie, or steal, and that he was hospitable.[20] But to-day, while these
factors remain to formulate the code, they no longer represent ideal
virtue. Nay rather, they are but the assumed base of virtue, and so
thoroughly is this assumed that to say of a gentleman that he does not
lie or steal is not praise, but rather an insult, since the imputation
to him of what is but the virtue of children is no longer an encomium
when applied to the adult, who is supposed to have passed the point
where theft and lying are moral temptations, and to have reached a
point where, on the basis of these savage, antique, and now childish
virtues, he strives for a higher moral ideal. And this ideal of
to-day, which makes fair-mindedness, liberality of thought, and
altruism the respective representatives of the savage virtues of
manual honesty, truth-speaking, and hospitality, is just what
is lacking in the more primitive ideal formulated in the code of
savages and of the Brahman alike.[21] It is not found at all among
savages, and they may be left on one side. In India all the factors of
the modern code are entirely lacking at the time when the old code was
first completely formulated. Liberality of thought comes in with the
era of the Upanishads, but it is a restricted freedom. Altruism is
unknown to pure Brahmanism. But it obtains among the Buddhists, who
also have liberality of thought and fair-mindedness. Hence, from the
point of view of the higher morality, one must confess that Buddhism
offers the best parallel to the best of to-day. On the other hand,
Buddhistic altruism exceeds all other.

We have sketched the sphere of influence exerted by the West upon
India, and found it on the whole inconsiderable. The Indic religions
till the twelfth century assimilated what little they drew from
foreign sources, and stand before the world