Collected Works (Vol. II)

AN ESSAY IN ONTOLOGY 239 sufficient to oppose a most serious stumbling- block to so gigantic a process. : The.task before us is consequently of a ter- rible nature. It is easyto let thingsslide,to grin and bear it in fact, until everything is merged in the ultimate unity, which may. or. may not be decently tolerable. But while we wait? There now arises the question of freewill. Causality is probably not fully extended in its own category,! a circumstance which gives room for a fractional amount of freewill. If this be not so, it matters little; for if I find myself in a good state, that merely proves that my destiny took me there. We are, as Herbert Spencer observes, self-deluded with the idea of freewill; but if this be so, nothing matters at all. If, however, Herbert Spencer is mistaken (unlikely as it must ap- pear), then our reason is valid, and we should seek out the right path and pursue it. The question therefore need not trouble us at all. Here then we see the use of morals and of religion, and all the rest of the bag of tricks. All these are methods, bad or good, for extricating ourselves from the universe. Closely connected with this question is that of the will of God. People argue that an Infi- nite intelligence must have been at work on this cosmos. I reply No! There is no intelligence at work worthy of the name. The Laws of Nature may be generalised in one—the Law of Inertia. Everything moves in the direction determined by the path of least resistance; species arise, develop, and die as their collec- tive inertia determines; to this Law there is no exception but the doubtful one of Free- will; the Law of Destiny itself is formally and really identical with it.” 1 Causality is itself a secondary, and in its limitation as applied to volition, an inconceiv- able idea. H. Spencer, of. czt. This con- sideration alone should add great weight to the agnostic, and a fortiori to the Buddhist, position. 2 See H. Spencer, ‘* First Principles,” ‘‘ The Knowable,” for afairsummary of the facts under- lying this generalisation; which indeed he comes within an ace of making iin so many words. It may be observed that this law is nearly if not quite axiomatic, its contrary being enormously difficult if not impossible to formulate mentally. As to an infinite intelligence, all. philo- sophers of any standing are agreed that all-love and all-power are incompatible: The existence of the universe is a standing proof of this. | The Deist needs the Optimist to keep him company; over their firesides all goes well, but it is a sad shipwreck they suffer on emerging into the cold world. This is why those who seek to buttress up religion are so anxious to prove that the universe has no real existence, or only a temporary and relatively unimportant one; the resultis of course the usual self- destruc. tive Advaitist muddle. The precepts of morality and religion are thus of use, of vital use to us, in restraining the more violent forces alike of nature and of man. For unless law and order prevail, we have not the necessary quiet and re- sources for investigating, and learning to bring under our control, all the divergent phenomena of our prison,a work which we undertake that at last we may be able to break down the walls, and find that freedom which an inconsiderate Inversion has denied. The mystical precepts of pseudo-Zoroaster, Buddha, Cankaracharya, pseudo-Christ and the rest, are for advanced students only, for direct attack on the problem. Our servants, the soldiers, lawyers, ‘all forms of govern- ment, make this our nobler work possible, and it is the gravest possible mistake to sneer at these humble but faithful followers of the great minds of the world. What, then, are the best, easiest, directest methods to attain our result? And how shall we, in mortal language, convey to the minds of others the nature of a result so beyond language, baffling even imagina- tion eagle-pinioned? It may help us if we endeavour to outline the distinction between the Hindu and Buddhist methods and aims of the Great Work. The Hindu method is really mystical in the truest sense; for, as I have shown, the Atman is not infinite and eternal: one day