The Consideration Of Human Suffering Is Not

The Old Notion That The Savage Is The Freest Of Mankind Is The Reverse Of The Truth. He Is A Slave, Not Indeed To A Visible Master, But To The Past, To The Spirits Of His Dead Forefathers, Who Haunt His Steps From Birth To Death, And Rule Him With A Rod Of Iron.

Yet It Would Be Unfair To The Generality Of Our Kind To Ascribe To Their Intellectual And Moral Weakness The Gradual Divergence Of Buddhism And Christianity From Their Primitive Patterns. For It Should Not Be Forgotten That By Their Glorification Of Poverty And Celibacy Both These Religions Struck Straight At The Root Not Merely Of Civil Society But Of Human Existence. The Blow Was Parried By The Wisdom Or The Folly Of The Vast Majority Of Mankind, Who Refused To Purchase A Chance Of Saving Their Souls With The Certainty Of Extinguishing The Species.

Yet Perhaps No Sacrifice Is Wholly Useless Which Proves There Are Men Who Prefer Honour To Life.

The Moral World Is As Little Exempt As The Physical World From The Law Of Ceaseless Change, Of Perpetual Flux.

The Advance Of Knowledge Is An Infinite Progression Towards A Goal That Ever Recedes.