Collected Works (Vol. II)

TIME * -A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A BRITISH SCEPTIC AND AN. | INDIAN MYSTIC ‘‘ He (Shelley) used to say that he had lived three times as long as the calendar gave out, which he would prove between jest and earnest by some remarks on Time— ~~ ‘That would have puzzled that stout Stagyrite. >)? —Prefix to the ‘‘ Wandering Jew” in “ Fraser's Magazine.” [The philosophical premisses of this and the other essays in this volume should be studied in ; Keynes. Formal Logic. Erdmann. History of Philosophy. Berkeley. Three Dialogues «.r-.A. Hume. Works. Kant. Prolegomena: Reason. Locke. Human Understanding. Huxley. Essays (Philosophical). Critique of Pure TIME. A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A BRITISH SCEPTIC AND AN INDIAN MYSTIC. . Scepticus. Well, my dear Babu, I trust you have slept well after our fatiguing talk of yesterday. | Mysticus. Ah, dear Mister, if you will forgive my adopting what is evidently your idiom, I found it, on the contrary, invigora- ting. What is it the Psalmist says? That the conversation of the wise is like unto good wine, which intoxicates with delight, while it hurts not the drinker? The balm of your illustrious words, borne like spice upon the zephyr | Scept. Shall we not rather renew our in- quiries into the nature of things, than, in unfertile compliment, waste the few hours we snatch awhile from death? Myst. Willingly. But lately you were the ‘‘sahib”’ asking questions concerning Indian Philosophy as a great prince who should con- descend to study the habits of horses or dogs —yesterday we changed all that. Patanjali. Aphorisms. Bhikkhu Ananda Metteya. Essays (prin- cipally in the quarterly ‘‘ Buddhism ”’). The Tao Teh King and the Writings of Kwang Tze. The Sufis, to whom chiefly Crowley is indebted for the foundations of his system of sceptical mysticism.] Scept. I have but one apology to offer— that of Dr. Johnson.! Myst. Pray forbear! Yet it may be for a moment instructive to notice the considera- tion which led you to assume a happier attitude; viz., that such identities of thought (implying such fine parallelisms of brain structure) were discovered, that, in short, you admitted the Indian (as you have been compelled to admit the Gibbon)? to classifica- tion in your own genus. Scept. You are hard upon my insolence. Myst. Only to make the opportunity of remarking a further parallelism: that the said insolence is matched, maybe surpassed, by my own. A witty Irishman, indeed, ob- served of the natives of the Tongue of Asia that ‘‘the Hindu, with all his faults, was civilised, like the Frenchman: the Musul- 1 Taunted with having described a_ horse's ‘*pastern’’ as his ‘‘knee,’’ the great lexico- grapher pleaded ‘‘ Ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance.” 2 See Huxley, ‘‘Man’s Place in Nature,” and elsewhere. * It must not be supposed that the author of this dialogue ecessarzly concurs in the views of either disputant, even where they are agreed.—A. C. 267