Page:The Spirit of Modern Philosophy (1892).djvu/278

254 and that life art thou.” This sentence expresses to his mind the substance of the true thought about the world. Let us, then, quote a paragraph or two from one of the Hindoo philosophic classics called the “Upanishads,” much read and loved by Schopenhauer, to illustrate his view. In the passage in question a teacher is represented as in conversation with his pupil, who is also his son. “‘Bring me,’ says the father, ‘a fruit of yonder tree.’ ‘Here it is, O Venerable One.’ ‘Cut it open.’ ‘It is done.’ ‘What seest thou therein?’ ‘I see, O Venerable One, very little seeds.’ ‘Cut one of them open.’ ‘It is done. Venerable One.’ ‘What seest thou therein?’ ‘Nothing, Venerable One.’ Then spake he: ‘That fine thing which thou seest not, my well beloved, from that fine thing (that life) is, in truth, this mighty tree grown. Believe me, my well beloved, what this fine (substance) is, of whose essence is all the world, that is the Reality, that is the Soul, — That art Thou, O Çvetaketu.’”

“‘This bit of salt, lay it in the (vessel of) water, and come again to-morrow to me.’ This did he. Then spake (the teacher): ‘Bring me that salt which yesterday even thou didst lay in the water.’ He sought it and found it not, for it was melted. ‘Taste the water here. How tastes it?’ ‘Salt.’ ‘Taste it there. How tastes it?’ ‘Salt.’ ‘Leave the vessel and sit at my feet.’ So did he, and said, ‘(The salt) is still there.’ Then spake the teacher: ‘Verily, so seest thou the truly Existent not in bodies, yet is it truly therein. What this fine substance is of whose essence is all the world, that is the Reality, that is the Soul, — That art Thou, O Çvetaketu.’”

“‘Just as, O my well beloved, a man whom they have led away out of the land of the Gandharis with eyes blindfolded, and have loosed him in the wilderness, — just as he wanders eastwards or westwards, southwards or northwards, because he has been led hither blindfolded and