versal nor its nihilism complete so long as it remains a
coherent method of action, with particular goals and a steady faith that
their attainment is possible. The renunciation of the will must stop at
the point where the will to be saved makes its appearance: and as this
desire may be no less troublesome and insistent than any other, as it
may even become a tormenting obsession, the mystic is far from the end
of his illusions when he sets about to dispel them. There is one
rational method to which, in post-rational systems, the world is still
thought to be docile, one rational endeavour which nature is sure to
crown with success. This is the method of deliverance from existence,
the effort after salvation. There is, let us say, a law of Karma, by
which merit and demerit accruing in one incarnation pass on to the next
and enable the soul to rise continuously through a series of stages.
Thus the world, though called illusory, is not wholly intractable. It
provides systematically for an exit out of its illusions. On this
rational ordinance of phenomena, which is left standing by an imperfect
nihilism, Buddhist morality is built. Rational endeavour remains
possible because experience is calculable and fruitful in this one
respect, that it dissolves in the presence of goodness and knowledge.

Similarly in Christian ethics, the way of the cross has definite
stations and a definite end. However negative this end may be thought to
be, the assurance that it may be attained is a remnant of natural hope
in the bosom of pessimism. A complete disillusion would have involved
the neglect of such an assurance, the denial that it was possible or at
least that it was to be realised under specific conditions. That
conversion and good works lead to something worth attaining is a new
sort of positivistic hope. A complete scepticism would involve a doubt,
not only concerning the existence of such a method of salvation, but
also (what is more significant) concerning the importance of applying it
if it were found. For to assert that salvation is not only possible but
urgently necessary, that every soul is now in an intolerable condition
and should search for an ultimate solution to all its troubles, a
restoration to a normal and somehow blessed state--what is this but to
assert that the nature of things has a permanent constitution, by
conformity with which man may secure his happiness? Moreover, we assert
in such a faith that this natural con